The Illusionist
by TheShredDoctor
Summary: '"Will you help me?" Daphne asked quietly, extending a hand towards Harry, "Will you help me make the world a better place?" Harry looked at her outstretched hand for moment before clasping it with his own. "I will"' - With those words, Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass seal their fates. Will they be able to rid the world of darkness, or will they be consumed by it?
1. The Illusionist

**Warning: the following is simply my rambling and ranting about this story, my thoughts as I begin to write it, as well as a short announcement to any of my previous followers. It will probably be very boring, and you may not wish to read it. If you do chose to skip the pre-amble, and simply get on to the story, please feel free.**

**This story will have a very dark tone. It won't be a constant bloodbath with relentless vulgarities, but it will have mature themes (violence, profanity, and sexual content). There will be no full on sex scenes, as I'm not sure I have the writing skill required to write something like that, and have it come out tastefully, instead of trashy word porn for someone lonely to jerk off to.**

**I find that a LOT of Daphne/Harry pairing stories have the exact same, rewashed plot, with identical characters. They start out with Harry getting a letter from Gringots that seeks his audience. Upon his meeting with the goblins, he discovers that Dumbledore has been stealing from him, using love potions on him to get him interested in Ginny, paying off the Weasleys to be kind to him, and stealing from his vault. He then finds out he has suppressed godlike powers, millions of galleons inherited from a ridiculous amount of ancestral families, and either a soul bond or a marriage contract to Daphne.**

**The stories always have Harry impressing the goblins of Gringots with his politeness (as if politeness would be an important virtue for Goblins), a new wand crafted out of the most legendary of ingredients for Harry, and Harry is able to justify his tyrannical rampage that results from him finding out about Dumbledore's trickery by simply saying "Nah, it's cool, I'm the heir to an ancient an noble house. It's legal for me to do all this."**

**These stories drive me insane; almost as much as the canon epilogue did. God damnit that was the worst ending to any series I have ever seen. The name "Albus Severus Potter" is enough on its own to warrant that title, but the Ginny/Harry marriage was complete garbage IMO.**

**Granted, it didn't necessarily have to be Daphne that Harry ends up with, but taking into account that in the canon, Draco ends up with Daphne's sister, I think she would be the best pick.**

**In Canon, every single Slytherin was portrayed as either evil, or a terrible person. Let's take a look at the only three Slytherins that weren't completely bad:**

**Slughorn was greedy; pinching every penny, and using the fame and success of those around him to boost his own status. Granted, his heart was in the right place, but he was ultimately portrayed as a gluttonous slob.**

**Snape may have only killed Dumbledore because he was ordered to, and he may have loved Lily, but he was childish and immature. He held an unhealthy grudge over his childhood rival for well over a decade, and transferred that grudge onto the child of said rival. No matter how justified some may think said grudge may be; that is unacceptable behavior for a teacher. He let losing his highschool crush push him towards the Death Eaters, and his naiveté ended up getting Lily killed.**

**Draco may have turned out somewhat decent in the end, but he was still the very pompous, self-entitled brat that made Harry dislike Slytherin in the first place for the vast majority of the series. Add to that the fact that he got away with his crimes seemingly unpunished at the end of the war, and you have a really poorly represented house at Hogwarts.**

**Putting Daphne (or any Slytherin, really. Hell, a reformed Pansy Parkinson would have worked very nicely) as the main romance would have shown young, impressionable readers that not everyone is the same as their stereotypes make them out to be. If a hero like Harry can love an "evil" Slytherin, why should people hate those of different races, religions, cultures, or orientations that are generally stereotyped negatively?**

**Instead, Harry ends up with Ginny Weasley: the girl who harbored a childish crush on him since she was a little girl, all because he was the famous "Boy-who-lived" and the very thing Harry most hates getting attention over. Instead of teaching kids a lesson in equality, and not judging a book by its cover, the canon instead teaches little girls that they'll end up marrying the celebrity they fawned over when they were eleven. Congratulations to Justin Beiber and the Jonas Brothers, you guys are getting a LOT of wives.**

**One line of Ginny's in particular at the end of Order of The Phoenix was enough to make me go "nope, uh-uh". The line in particular was where she mentioned that Micheal Corner had run off to comfort Cho. That line screamed a subtext of "My ex is dating your ex, so we should get together to complete the exchange", alongside a heavy dose of desperation.**

**Now, before any Ginny lovers out there start sharpening your pitchforks, I should note that as a character overall, I don't dislike Ginny. She's actually kind of a bad ass. My issue is strictly with her as a romance option for Harry, and what it represents.**

**If I had been in control of the Canon, I would have had Astoria being captured and brought to Malfoy Manor, instead of Luna. That way, little snippets of Draco/Astoria interactions could be written, showing him warm up to her and begin to fall for her. This would show a much more dynamic Draco Malfoy, and it would better explain why Draco was suddenly reluctant to give up Harry's identity when asked by Belatrix.**

**Alas, I don't own Harry Potter, and therefore, the canon is what it is. Perhaps once I'm done with this story, I'll begin a re-write of sorts to the last two books, with a lighter, more uplifting message.**

**Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), this story will not be uplifting. It will not have a nice, kind Daphne that shatters house stereotypes, or a nice happy ending. This story will be dark, depressing, and have an ending that leaves more major characters dead than alive.**

**The Daphne Greengrass in this story isn't the over-used "Ice Queen" who shows no emotion to everyone else, but then as soon as she meets Harry, she suddenly loves and trusts him with undying devotion. Ron will not be the idiotic, jealous, Slytherin-hating prick that a lot of fanfics exaggerate him to be, and Dumbledore will not be the clichéd, manipulative bastard who has devised some master plan that Harry is suddenly able to ruin at every opportunity. **

**Daphne Greengrass will be a cold and calculating witch, who is very intelligent, but also very much flawed. (Spoiler alert) At the beginning, she will have a very noble cause, but will let all her new-found power get to her head. Ron will be as he is in the books: Harry's best friend. He may have jealousy issues, but that's what makes him human; no one is infallible. Dumbledore will be a wizard of the light that will always see the good in people. He is a powerful wizard, but he is not a godly diety; he's only human. He, like Ron, is not infallible, and is able to make mistakes. The Author of one of my favourite fanfics put it perfectly; He makes mistakes like everyone else, it's just that the mistakes he makes have far greater consequences than everyone elses.**

**On a related note, I'd like to end my spiel by listing some of my favourite Harry Potter fanfics. All have contributed in some degree to my inspiration of this story. For those looking for some good reads, I recommend any one of them:**

"**Dakaath: Prince of Darkness" by ****LT2000 (Cho/Harry)**

"**Delenda Est" by Lord Silvere (Younger Belatrix/Harry)**

"**Harry Potter and the Fury of the Elements" by The Phoenix King (Cho/Harry)**

"**The Lie I've Lived" by jbern (Fleur/Harry)**

"**The Pureblood Princess" by TheEndless7 (Daphne/Harry)**

"**Letters" by TheEndless7 (Fleur/Harry, with a Daphne/Harry alternate ending that IMO is better than the regular, simply because it shows a more realistic perspective of relationships than most fanfics … and it has Haphne. I like Haphne)**

**As well as anything by the author James Spookie (formerly MunkeyManiac)**

**(Also, if anyone can recommend some good Harry/Hermione fics, that would be greatly appreciated. Almost all of what I can find with her are either very poorly written, pure smut, or they involve a harem)**

**Anyways, please enjoy my story, and don't be afraid to comment, even if it's for (constructive) criticism.**

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**Chapter 1: The Illusionist**

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**January 28****th****, 2010**

Having one's life flashing before their eyes before they die is not a new, or unknown phenomenon. Millions of documented cases of individuals who have experienced a complete review of their life during a near death experience have come into existence over the years. Many of the religious crowd claim that the phenomenon is the result of a divine being reviewing the individual's life before sentencing them in the afterlife. Neurologists and psychologists dismiss such cases as hallucinations induced by extreme shock in an understandably stressful situation. Whether caused by divine judgment or a stress addled mind, Harry potter didn't really care.

He had completely ignored the priest that had read him his last rites, as he chose not to believe in what Daphne had often referred to as 'utter dragon shit'. He chose not to pay much attention as he was led into a large, circular chamber, surrounded on all sides by a spectating audience.

Had he bothered to search the faces that peered down at him, he would have noticed the tear-streaked face of Hermione, contorted into an expression of pain and sadness. He would have observed a thoroughly distraught Tonks, her hair dull and lifeless, as she sobbed into the shoulder of Pomona Sprout, who was desperately trying to keep remain strong for the young witch beside her.

He did, however, look up to briefly lock eyes with a stoic Neville Longbottom. A silent conversation passed between the two former Griffindors as Kingsley Shacklebolt read out a long list of crimes.

Harry did not resist as two aurors began leading him towards a familiar veiled archway. It was then that Harry's flashback of nearly a decade and a half worth of events began.

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**June 30****th**** 1995**

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_Whether or not you are aware, I am unsure, but in the past week, the Ministry of Magic has finally taken a stance on your claim of the Dark Lord's return. What is their stance, you ask? They have decided that you are an attention seeking liar. Although they have yet to make their decision public, they have been pressuring the daily prophet into publish propaganda against both yourself and headmaster Dumbledore._

_As it is, you will find very few individuals in magical Britain who both believe your story, and who aren't supporters of the Dark Lord. I am one of those individuals, and I wish to meet with you in person to discuss the possibility of a mutually beneficial alliance._

_Sincerely,_

_A friend_

That was the letter Harry had discovered tied to the leg of an ethereal white barn owl perched on his window sill when he arrived at the Dursley's.

His read spinning, he collapsed onto his rather uncomfortable bed. His Fourth year at Hogwarts had been very emotionally tiring, and the revelation that this letter provided did not help the headache that rapidly was rapidly developing.

_Why would the ministry do this?_ He asked himself. He knew that Fudge didn't want to believe his story, but to take such drastic measures? _Why not simply cover up my story? Why go so far as to discredit me? Am I, a student, that much of a threat?_

Questions began appearing in his head more rapidly than shoppers at a Black Friday sale. With a sigh, he rolled over onto his side to face his desk, where the unknown barn owl still perched, staring down at him. From her cage, Hedwig was sending the other owl glares of distain.

Who was this mysterious 'friend' of his?

Finally, Harry forced himself to his feet and pulled a quill and a small scrap of parchment from his trunk and hastily scrawled a quick note.

_Dear, ?_

_That sounds acceptable_

_Sincerely, Harry_

He felt silly, writing such a short message, and felt his cheeks warm up a little when he thought back to how formal the other letter had been. This mysterious messenger would probably think him either uncivilized or impolite from his response.

Not knowing what else he could add to the letter to make it seem more adequate, he tied the parchment to the barn owls leg.

As he watched the ghostly owl fly off, he berated himself for accepting to meet someone whose identity he didn't know. If the real Mad-Eye Moody were anything like his imposter portrayed, he'd be thoroughly disappointed at his lack of vigilance.

With another sigh, Harry decided he decided he'd deal with that problem when it arose.

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**A few hours earlier**

A modest manor stood rigid on a tiny, rocky island just off the coast of Cardiff. Every day, ships ferrying passengers and cargo passed within a few hundred meters of the island, yet oddly enough, not a single person aboard those ships took notice of it.

Within one of the manor's many studies, a stoic figure sat perched on a brown leather armchair, a short glass of aged brandy clutched in one hand, while staring expectantly at the low burning embers within the study's majestic fireplace. Ornate carvings of ivy trailed along either side of the mahogany and ivory mantelpiece.

The figure in the armchair sniffed, inhaling the musk of the many ancient leather bound tomes that lined the dark wood shelves. With a slight flick of the wrist, they sloshed the brandy in their glass before taking a swig of the pungent liquor.

They then gently set the glass down on a low table to their right as the embers before them began to glow brightly before suddenly bursting into tall, verdant flames.

Despite this bizarre occurrence, the room's occupant wasn't fazed. Instead, they calmly stood up, drawing themselves up to full height, and clutched their hands together behind their back.

When a person stepped out of the fireplace, having materialized out of nothing from within the emerald fire, the now standing figure didn't even bat an eyelash. In fact, they seemed to be expecting it.

They took a brief moment to take in the appearance of the newcomer. Sleek strands of honey coloured hair flowed flawlessly from atop their head, framing a very youthful face. Twin sapphire eyes stared straight back at the original occupant. The new arrival's face was expertly schooled into a neutral mask that was unreadable to all. Unfortunately for her, those two ice blue eyes, like windows to the soul, betrayed her nearly paralyzing.

"Father," The young girl spoke, pushing her inner emotions down.

The man merely grunted in response, quickly bringing his attention back to the fireplace as it flared once more before admitting a second newcomer.

The newest of the room's occupant took a moment to straighten her robes and re-adjust the neat ponytail she kept her flawless golden hair in. Aside from her slightly lighter hair colour, and being visibly older and more developed, she looked nearly identical to the young girl she now stood beside.

After receiving a pointed stare from her father, the younger of the two girls spoke, knowing exactly what it was her father wanted, and knowing not to make him wait for it.

"I-I received an 'Outstanding' in all my classes. I plan on taking Runes and Arithmancy as my two electives for next year."

"Every class?" Her father questioned, tilting his head ever so slightly. "Not an hour ago I was in a meeting with several of my associates, including one Severus Snape. Do not try to pull the wool over my eyes, _Astoria_," He spat, with an obvious threat in his voice.

"well… I mean, that is to say…" Astoria stuttered, "I did get an 'Exceeds Expectation' in potions, but I swear, every other class, I got an 'Outstanding'!"

"So you lied to me!" roared the Greengrass patriarch.

"W-well, I-I…"

"Daphne, what was your mark in potions?" He asked, ignoring Astorias terrified sputtering, turning to the older girl.

"That's hardly fair, you know Astoria's in Ravenclaw, and you know Snape-"

"_Proffesor_ Snape," Lord Greengrass hissed. In a single, fluid motion, he drew himself from his chair to his full height, and at 6'4, Cygnus Greengrass was an imposing sight.

Daphne gulped nervously. Clearly reminding her father that his youngest daughter was the only Greengrass in 14 generations not to be sorted into the house of the snake was not a wise decision. "Answer the question, Daphne!"

"I… I have an Outstanding." She finally acquiesced, shooting her half-sister an apologetic glance.

"Do you hear that, Astoria? Daphne has an O."

"Father, stop, please! You know Professor Snape is biased!" Daphne shouted.

Unfortunately, her pleas fell on deaf ears, as Lord Greengrass brandished his wand. "I will not accept mediocrity in this house, and I most certainly will not tolerate being lied to! CRUCIO!"

The projectile of red light struck Astoria directly in the chest, flinging her back into the solid wood of the mantelpiece. Her body crumpled to the floor in an uncontrollably quivering pile.

"Father, NO!" Daphne screeched, grabbing her father's wand hand in a miserable attempt to wrench it away from the twitching girl on the floor.

"Insolent girl!" howled the man, grabbing Daphne by the throat and flinging her against a bookshelf.

Although unsuccessful at overpowering the much larger wizard, Daphne's actions had the desired effect of breaking her father's concentration, freeing Astoria from the wrath of the dreaded torture curse.

"Father please!" gasped Daphne, crawling on her hands and knees to the hem of her father's robes, "I'll tutor Astoria; I'll make sure she brings her mark up next year. I promise. Just please, don't do this!"

Schooling his features into a cold and calculating mask before speaking, Cygnus gruffly nodded. "Very well. I have some business to attend to a right now anyways. But make no mistake; you have now tied your fate to hers. If by the end of next year, her marks do not improve, you will both be begging for death."

With a flourish of his cloak, he strutted purposefully towards the floo connection. Tossing a pinch of floo powder into the fire, he sent them one last threat before disappearing into the verdant flames.

"And I just might grant it."

It was several more seconds before Daphne's adrenaline flooded mind was able to act. As soon as she realized that she and her sister were safe, she ran to Astoria's side. Tenderly, she pulled Astoria's prone form into a sitting position, wrapping her arm around the thirteen-year-old's small frame.

"I'm scared Daphne," The younger witch whimpered, burying her tear streaked face into the crook of Daphne's neck.

"Don't be," the elder sister replied, rocking the young girl gently from side to side, "I've been working on something for the past year, and I think I know who just might help us." With that, Daphne stood to go search for Tyto, her favourite of the Greengrass family owls.

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**July 8****th****, 1995**

_Hot! It's so god damned hot! _

That was all that Harry Potter's heat addled brain was able to comprehend as he crawled into the shade of a nearby pine tree.

He had just spent the entire day mowing and weeding the Dursley's lawn, as well as pruned the hedges. It was a very dirty, tired, and sweaty Harry that walked up to the doorstep that evening, and instead of receiving thanks (not that he expected any), his uncle had told him to run off somewhere.

"A very important potential business partner is going to be arriving soon, and I won't have you tracking all that dirt into the house. You'll have to scamper off somewhere and occupy yourself for the next few hours," Vernon had said, "And don't let anyone see you doing your freaky nonsense. I won't have it!"

So, Harry had wandered off to a nearby park, collapsing into the shade of the very tree he now found himself taking refuge under.

For the past week since arriving back at Privet Drive from Hogwarts, his relatives had worked him to the bone. He had already scrubbed and polished every floorboard, washed and waxed both vehicles, cleaned the eve's trough twice, and dug out two new flower beds for the back yard. Harry was certain his relatives would run out of chores to give him, but alas, the list of chores kept growing.

The only good thing about being this exhausted was that he was unable to dwell on the events at the end of this past school year; the events that had led to the rise of Lord Voldemort, and the death of Cedric Diggory.

Harry Had spent many sleepless nights reliving that night. The moment he replayed in his head the most was the exact instant he had arrived back at Hogwarts, clutching Cedric's body.

He recalled every detail as he tore his gaze from the Cedric's lifeless corpse, a look of surprise frozen on his face, up to the spectators in the stands. He remembered the exact second that realization dawned on Amos Diggory; realization that his son lay unmoving, never to move again. He watched the shock wash over Professor Sprout as she came to terms with the fact that she'd never see one of her favourite students again. Worst of all, he watched the extreme pain and horror that overwhelmed Cho Chang. He could count every tear that marred her pretty face.

All because of him, Cho now had to live with Cedric's death.

With a groan, Harry rolled over onto his stomach and buried his face in the ground. With white knuckles, he grasped the baked, yellow grass beneath him in a fist.

_Apparently not exhausted enough_.

So, Harry just lay there on the ground, willing himself not to think about anything at all. Eventually he was able to escape into his own mind, closing himself off from the outside world.

He didn't have the foggiest idea how long he had stayed there; it may have been hours, it may have been minutes. He couldn't even be certain whether or not he had fallen asleep in that position at one point.

Suddenly, his ears picked up the sound of brittle grass blades being crunched underfoot, and he was snapped out of his trance.

On instinct, his hand went his pocket where it brushed across the handle of his wand. Slowly, he rolled over to take a glance at the person walking to see who it was that was nearby.

Harry yelped in surprise, as when he rolled over, he realized that his visitor was closer than he expected. Much closer. In fact, for a moment before he hastily backed up into the tree he had taken refuge under, His entire field of vision had been two orbs of flawless, almost unnatural blue.

"Tsk, your reaction speeds are much too slow. If I had been an enemy, you would be dead by this point," said a cold, hard edged female voice.

"And who the right bloody hell are you?" Harry demanded, letting go of the wand in his pocket, having ascertained that he was in no immediate danger.

His visitor noticed the action. "You're too quick to trust, too. No matter, we can work on that later."

Harry glared at the girl in front of him, before sudden recognition dawned on him.

"You're Daphne Greengrass!" he exclaimed, thrusting an accusatory finger at her.

"We can add observant to your list of traits," She scoffed, apathetically examining her fingernails.

"I… Who… You…" Harry stammered, mentally struggling with himself to come to terms with the fact that one of his year mates, one who he had never spoken more than a few words to over the years, and a Slytherin no less, was now standing before him, mere blocks away from Privet Drive.

Slowly, his mind digested this information, before latching on to one detail: her clothes.

"You're wearing wizard clothes! What if someone sees you?"

Daphne merely shrugged, "Then they'll look at me funny and be on their way. It's not as if I'm riding a unicorn into Buckingham palace."

"Ok, fair point," he acquiesced, "But what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to speak to you of course," she replied, the corner of her mouth twitching almost imperceptibly into the slightest of smirks, "Or did you forget my letter? You're a very difficult wizard to track down, especially when you didn't put your address in your response."

Harry's jaw dropped in a near comical fashion. _"YOU!"_

"Me," replied Daphne, her smirk growing more apparent, "your way with words never ceases to amaze me."

"Would you stop with your little comebacks?" Harry snapped.

Daphne shrugged, returning her attention back to cleaning her nails, "I would if you didn't make it so easy."

Harry scowled, deciding to ignore her haughty attitude, "And what do you mean 'difficult to track down'?"

"Well, seeing as how it's been 9 days since I sent you that letter, It's clearly taken some time to get here," She replied, abandoning her task with her fingernails, "It took me five days of searching ministry records and pulling favors to find the names of the people you were living with, and then I had to go through muggle phone books from all over Britain to find where they live. I say, whoever put you here did a very thorough job of hiding you."

"Obviously not thorough enough if you found me", Harry replied.

"I used my father's name to get access to the records, and there are maybe 10 other individuals in all of magical Britain that wield the same political clout that he does," She responded, before taking a moment to gesture the area around them. "Not to mention the ward that surrounds this place. I've never seen anything quite like it; Hogwarts doesn't even have wards like this. I had to spend a few hours running diagnostic spells until I was certain I'd survive passing through them."

Harry's curiosity threatened to overcome him, before he pulled himself back to the question that had been nagging him since the moment he'd first read Daphne's letter.

"You said you wanted to offer me an alliance. In the letter, I mean. What alliance?" He asked.

Daphne's disposition suddenly turned businesslike as she began to speak. "I want the Dark Lord gone; he is a bigoted fool that has become a voice of the festering hate which plagues our world. And I know that, for whatever reason, he seems to be hell-bent on ending your life. So, unless you enjoy having a psychopath after you, it is in both of our interests that he be destroyed."

Harry nodded slowly in understanding. "Fair enough," he said, "but why approach me? Surely someone like Dumbledore would be able to help you."

Daphne vehemently shook he head. "No, I want more than to just see the end of the Dark Lord. As powerful as Dumbledore may be, he is not the kind of man who would be willing to do what is necessary to end this world's hate."

"This world's hate?" asked Harry curiously, "What hate?"

Daphne scoffed. "I'm talking about the hate that will prevent your friend, Granger, from being allowed to hold a job as the head of a department within the ministry once she graduates, simply because of her blood status. The hate that has ensured our former professor, Lupin, to have never been employed outside of Hogwarts, simply because of his disease; the hate that caused your parent's will to be considered void by the Ministry."

Harry stared dumbly at her. Never before had he heard anything about his parents leaving behind a will, and now to finally find out about it, and learn it had been disregarded by the ministry had sent his brain reeling. Within him, something began to stir.

"-Your mother, despite being one of the most qualified witches in a century," Harry heard Daphne's voice, and realized he hadn't been paying attention to what she had been saying after the revelation about his parent's will. He immediately brought his focus back to the young, blonde haired witch. "-was forced to quit her job as an unspeakable, simply because of her parentage. One of my contacts has recently informed me that the Veela girl that was at our school for the tournament last year, Fleur, I believe her name was, has been denied employment within magical Great Britain by the ministry, simply because she isn't fully human,"

"Fleur's trying to move to the UK?" Harry asked, his distracted mind latching onto that piece of information.

Daphne merely ignored his question and continued with her speech. "You are symbol, whether you like it or not, of the Dark Lord's demise. Once the Ministry ends their smear campaign on you, the masses will rally around you. They will believe that you are the one to end him once and for all."

"That-" began Harry, only to be cut off by Daphne holding her hand up.

"So what happens after you beat him, or after someone else does the job instead? Things will return the way they were before. Muggleborns will still be discriminated against. Muggles will still be looked at as inferior beings. Half-breeds will still be shunned. Non-humans will still be treated like animals, just like it's been for hundreds of years.

"It's my goal to make the hate stop."

Harry stared at her for a full minute, carefully calculating what she had said. "What are you saying?" he asked.

Daphne then took a few deep breaths as if preparing for something before hesitantly speaking again, "My half-sister, Astoria, gets beaten daily simply because her mother was not a pureblood."

Harry's eyes widened at her admission.

"My sister has been nothing short of perfect in my eyes. Whenever I look at her, I see a beautiful, unbelievably intelligent young girl, who will one day make a name for herself. Yet, when my father looks at her, all he sees is an embarrassment that should be swept under the rug and forgotten, lest someone else see."

Harry dipped his head in thought. The way Daphne described Astoria's situation reminded him of his own traumatic upbringing.

"I want my sister to one day wake up to find herself in a world where she can be safe. I want her to see a world where no child will ever be neglected and unloved simply because of what they are."

Harry stared unblinkingly at Daphne. _Could she know? Could she possibly have discovered his treatment at the hands of his abusive relatives?_

Then a single realization hit him. _No one will ever have to suffer what I have._

"Will you help me?" Daphne asked quietly, extending a hand towards Harry, "Will you help me make the world a better place?"

Harry looked at her outstretched hand for moment before clasping it with his own. "I will"

Daphne smiled. It wasn't like the few smirks or arrogant grins she had given him earlier. _Her smile is truly beautiful_, he decided. Harry couldn't help himself but smile back.

They stood there, smiling happily to each other for a moment, before something Daphne said returned to the forefront of Harry's mind.

"You said my parent's will was considered void. Does this mean you've seen it?" he asked.

Seeing the longing in his eyes, Daphne's face adopted a soft expression. "I looked through it to see where they wanted to send you. Remus Lupin was listed in your chain of custody, and as a lycanthrope, his mention was enough for the ministry to claim it to be an illegitimate will."

"Can I see it?" Harry asked sadly, "Even if it's not accepted by the ministry, still want to see it with my own eyes."

Daphne nodded sorrowfully. "Sure," she replied, "I can take you there now, if you'd like"

All she received in response was a single downward jerk of the head from Harry. Gently, she took his hand in hers and closed her eyes. With a soft 'pop' the two disappeared.

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It was an hour later that another soft 'pop' was heard on the front lawn of Number 4, Privet Drive. Fortunately, no one was outside at the time to see the short, pink-haired witch that had materialized out of thin air with the pop.

"Dung?" Called out Nymphadora Tonks to seemingly no one.

"Oi, Dung!" She called out a bit louder when she received no response. "Dung what the bloody hell do you think you're playing at?"

Growing increasingly worried, Tonks apparated straight into the smallest bedroom of the house behind her. The wizard she had been sent to watch would receive a bit of a shock at having someone simply appear in his room, and both Dumbledore and Moody had told her not to be seen by her ward, but right now, his safety took priority.

It was with great shock that she discovered Harry's room to be empty. Casting a glance at the alarm clock that sat perched on the bedside table, she realized it was nearly 7 o'clock. _Perhaps he was downstairs eating supper._

Quickly casting a disillusionment charm on herself, and adding a silencing spell on both her feet, she stealthily crept out of the bedroom. Cursing to herself as she nearly tripped on the stairs (twice) she made her way to the dining room. Looking in, she noted the bulking frames of Vernon and Dudley Dursely, both of whom wore formal suits that looked ridiculous, straining to hold together at the seams.

Petunia was also seated at the table, conversing quietly with a regal looking woman Tonks didn't recognize. Beside the unknown woman was a rather tall, handsome older gentleman Tonks also didn't recognize.

Cursing under her breath, the pink-haired witch forced herself to think rationally. _The Dursleys had guests. Perhaps Harry left the house to avoid them_.

Focusing on the nearby park Harry often went to whenever he wanted to be alone, Tonks quickly apparated away.

The second she re-materialized, she hastily searched around for any sign of the young wizard. When she discovered the park was empty, she metally got herself ready to apparate away to the Order and give them the bad news. That was when a single, disembodied foot under a nearby tree caught her attention.

With a low, angry growl, she ripped an invisibility cloak off of the passed-out, prone form of Mundugus Fletcher, who reeked of alcohol.

"DUNG!" She screeched, her hair uncontrollably turning a fiery red.

The small man on the ground before her groaned and rolled over. "Oi! Watch it! I got me a hangover. Tha' bloody hurts!"

Tonks narrowed her eyes and send a well-aimed kick to the little man's ribs. "Where's Harry, Dung?"

"Ow! You fuckin' loony broad!" hissed Dung, clutching his side.

"Where is he?" Tonks asked again, unconcerned about any pain he was in

"He's right-" Mundungus began, gesturing towards a nearby tree, before stopping when he realized no one was under it "-er… well he was asleep under tha' tree las' I was lookin'."

"He's not at the Dursleys'," Said Tonks, still glaring at the man.

Mundungus instantly paled, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. Tonks would have found it comical, had the situation not been so severe.

"Harry Potter has gone missing."

0-0-0-0-0-0

_As an outcast I faced defeat_  
_ Seeking comfort in this painful retreat_  
_ Made an oracle against my will_  
_ Word spread of miraculous skills_

_ Premonitions call my name_  
_ I once doubted them all when they came_  
_ Now I embrace it and I'll never be the same_

_ Those who call me avatar_  
_ Know not what they're looking for_  
_ They just feed their flames with miracles_  
_ Just so you know_  
_ If you bathe within my light_  
_ You diminish your own might_  
_ Illusionist in everyone_

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**To anyone wondering how Daphne is using magic outside of school, just wait, all will be explained.**

******Also, I'd like to point out that I'm Canadian. While we use the British way of spelling a lot of words (colour, favourite, grey, ect), we use an American vocabulary (elevator instead of lift, sweater instead of jumper, eraser instead of rubber, ect.). If any of my British reader catch anything out of place, please let me know.**

**Other than that, if you have any other concerns, comments, or constructive criticism, please feel free to let me know, either through review or private messaging. For all those reading; Merci Beaucoup!**

**(Also, I'd like to point out that this fic will be bumped up to an R rating later on. I'm setting it to T for now, so that it will show up on the default search)**


	2. The Sonata to Immortals

**There was a review posted that made a good point about something, and other readers may have a similar concern, so I want to address it here for everyone.**

**The concern was that I had claimed this would be a story with a dark tone, yet it really doesn't seem like that yet. Rest assured, the mood will get darker, but keep in mind that I'm starting with a Harry that is canon as possible. Harry isn't going to go dark overnight; it's a gradual progression that will become more and more apparent with each chapter. Within the next couple of chapters, you'll see a much closer look at Daphne and Astoria's home life, which will help contribute to what I'm working towards.**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy. Again, like last chapter, if you spot any mistakes, please don't hesitate to let me know about them.**

**Anyways, please enjoy! (This chapter is more of a set-up/filler episode, but it helps to set the stage for many future events)**

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Chapter 2: The Sonata to Immortals

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"That was worse than portkey!" Harry groaned as he collected himself off of the hard dark wood floor he now found himself on. "What was that?"

"Apparation," Daphne replied quickly, "Now let's get going, people are looking at us."

A quick glance around showed Harry that Daphne was correct. He found himself surrounded by several rather important looking witches and wizards in formal looking black robes. Most of them bustled about, obviously too busy to note the young witch and wizard that had appeared suddenly in their midst. A few however, took the time to openly stare at the two, a few even pointing directly at Harry while whispering to those nearby.

"Right," Harry said, pulling his attention to Daphne, "lead the way"

As Daphne began weaving through the crowd, pulling him along with her, Harry took the time to take in his surroundings. They were inside a massive, rectangular chamber constructed of obsidian and granite. 3 of the four walls of the chamber were lined with ornate fireplaces that occasionally flashed green as people appeared and disappeared inside of them. Overhead, a multitude of folded paper airplanes buzzed about, swerving to avoid the few owls that fluttered about.

Harry gasped in awe as the passed under the shadow of an enormous gold statue of a witch and a wizard, surrounded by slightly smaller statues of a goblin, a centaur, and a house elf, all with a happy smile on their face. Water streamed out of the five statues, collecting in a very shallow pool of water beneath.

"The Fountain of Magical Brethren," Daphne explained, "It was built to placate the centaur and goblin populations in Great Britain, but it shows its true message quite clearly."

It was then that Harry took note of the fact that the witch and wizard in the fountain seemed to tower over the other three statues. The expressions on the faces of the goblin, centaur, and house elf seemed to be those of admiration, wonder, and awe as the gazed up to the two humans.

Harry shook his head at the sight. When had he ever seen a goblin looked at a wizard with an expression other than disdain? And now that he thought about it, most of the centaurs he had met in his first year seemed to want nothing to do with humans. The only one that seemed accurate was the house elf.

A tug on his sleeve from Daphne got him to continue moving once more.

"What is this place?" he asked, his gaze sweeping around the chamber.

"Tesco," She replied with a smirk.

Harry growled at her.

"Alright, no jokes," she replied defensively, throwing her hands in the air in mock surrender, "This is the Ministry of Magic; the governing body of magical UK."

Not giving him a chance to ask any more questions, Daphne pulled him towards a large receptionist desk near the back wall.

"Hello, I wish to enquire as to whether or not Lacerta Leach is still in her office," she said to the man at the desk with a calm, yet firm tone.

Not looking up from the paperwork, the man replied, "I am not at liberty to disclose the whereabouts of or employees. If you wish to speak to Miss Leach, you must set up an appointment through the proper channels."

Daphne narrowed her eyes at the man. "I was under the impression I did not require an appointment."

"Look, lady you-" the receptionist cut himself off as he looked up at who he was speaking to. "-Miss Greengrass!"

"_Heiress_ Greengrass to you," She replied forcefully.

"Of course, Miss… Heiress Greengrass! Miss Leach is still in her office, she's scheduled to work until 10."

"Thank you," said Daphne; not a hint of gratitude in her voice. She swiftly stalked off toward a set of highly polished lift doors, dragging Harry along with her.

"Sometimes you have to be forceful with these buffoons," she said, leading him on to a surprisingly empty lift.

"Heiress?" He asked timidly.

Daphne nodded rigidly, "I am one of my father's only two children. As he loathes Astoria, and we have no other living relatives on the island, I am the sole beneficiary of his will."

Harry merely whistled in response.

"Our fortune has dwindled over the years, thanks to my late grandfather's gambling, and now my father's investment in the Dark Lord's campaign, but we're still one of the top 20 wealthiest families in Magical Britain," she said offhandedly, "Of course if he knew what I was doing with the power he gave me, he'd likely cut me off, maybe even pull me out of Hogwarts."

"Would he start treating you like your sister?" He asked.

"Probably not to the same extreme," She responded, rubbing the back of her neck in discomfort. "My mother was pureblood, and therefore, so am I. He'd never allow a pureblood and a 'mudblood' to be treated as equals."

"You never mentioned your mother before. Wouldn't she disprove of the way he treats Astoria?"

"We'll talk about it later," she replied brusquely, in a tone that suggested 'later' meant 'never'.

"Sorry," Harry said hastily, noting he had touched a nerve, "I didn't mean to pry."

"Its fine," Daphne responded distractedly, "We're here"

Sure enough, the lift slowed to a halt, and a disembodied female voice called out, "Level 13: Department of Magical Inheritance and the Ministry of Magic Hall of Records"

Harry gaped in awe as the lift doors slid open to reveal what looked like the largest library he had ever seen. Towering shelves, each teaming with nearly identical black, leather-bound tomes, filled the enormous room, leaving just enough room in between each for a single person to pass through. Every so often, one of the books would fly off the shelf, only for its empty spot to be replaced by another. Overhead, a flock of books, flapping their pages like birds, circled.

Walking single-file, the duo ambled forwards, occasionally ducking to avoid being hit by one of the books. As they moved forward, the volumes on the shelves seemed to grow more weathered and beaten, suggesting that they were older.

Peering over Daphne's shoulder, Harry noticed a vast, cluttered desk right at the very back wall. There, a tiny, hunched over old woman sat, furiously scribbling something on the top sheet of a ream of parchment.

As they reached the desk, the old lady picked an almost comically long wand up from the surface of the desk and waved it over the parchment. Harry watched in fascination as the sheet she had been writing on folded itself into a paper airplane and flew off over their heads.

The elderly woman quickly set down the wand, switching it out for her quill and began writing on the next sheet in the stack.

Daphne stepped towards the desk and cleared her throat.

"Name of document?" the tiny woman asked in heavy, eastern European accent, without taking her eyes off her work.

"Joint will of Lily and James Potter," calmly replied Daphne.

The woman at the desk paused her writing to peer up at the young witch and wizard through large, thick glasses that would make Professor Trelawney jealous. Her eyes briefly passed over the fringe of hair that covered Harry's scar before turning her gaze to Daphne.

"Miss Greengrass," She said stiffly, before picking up her ridiculously disproportionate to her body size wand, and gave it a slight flick in a seemingly random direction. That done, she set all of her focus back on her previous task of writing.

Harry was about to ask what had happened when one of the many flying books suddenly flapped towards Daphne and dropped into her outstretched hands.

With a small smirk, Daphne handed the book over to Harry, who gazed longingly at the words engraved on the cover. _Last will and testament of Lily Marie and James Charlus Potter._

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Albus!"

The call echoed through the old, derelict house, causing Sirius Black to sit bolt upright in his chair.

"Albus! Where are you?"

Setting down the paper he was reading, Sirius pushed himself up out of the chair to go find the source of the commotion. As he opened the door to the main library, he was forced to sidestep out of the way of a pink blur as it streaked into the room.

"Alb- oh, Sirius!" said the pink blur.

"Nymphadora, what's going on?" asked the now confused man, staring at his clearly upset second cousin.

"I need to find Dumbledore," She replied anxiously, not noticing the use of her hated first name.

Deciding to push his luck, Sirius replied, "Well, Nymphadora, He had to attend a staff meeting with the heads of houses. Is there anything I can help you with, Nymphadora?"

Sirius struggled to contain his laughter as the pink-haired auror still seemed to not notice her first name. "Staff meeting?" she asked, "This early in the summer?"

"Well, Nymphadora, I believe it had to do with the marks from last year; something about assigning prefects," he answered.

A distressed groan escaped Tonks' lips. "I need to use your floo then," she said, "Harry's gone missing!"

The laughter that threatened to burst from Sirius instantly died at his lips. Not wasting any time, Sirius scrambled over to the fireplace in the library. He hastily grabbed what was probably more than ten times the required amount of floo powder and tossed it in.

With a shout of "Hogwarts, headmaster's office," and a flash of green he disappeared, not sparing a glance over his shoulder for his cousin.

"Sirius, what is the meaning of this?" was the first thing he heard as he stumbled out of the fireplace and into Dumbledore's office.

"Harry's missing!" replied a panicked voice from behind Sirius.

As was expected, there was an uproar at Tonks' statement. McGonagall let out a sharp gasp and immediately shot to her feet, Flitwick squeaked and fell out of his chair, and Sprout began nervously pacing while muttering under her breath. Only Snape and Dumbledore were able to keep themselves collected.

"Everyone, please calm yourselves," Dumbledore called out with a forceful tone, "panicking does not help young mister Potter."

Immediately, everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to face the aged wizard. Professor Sprout managed an embarrassed blush.

"Good," the headmaster said, noting that everyone had to some degree relaxed, "Now, why don't you explain what happen, and start from the top, Miss Tonks?"

So, Tonks explained how she had arrived to take over for Mundungus, and had not been able to find either the diminutive Order member, or Harry. She continued on up until the point where she came to Grimmauld Place to locate the headmaster. "…And that's when we both came here," She finished.

"I swear I'll strangle that Fletcher!" Seethed Sirius

"Calm yourself," replied Dumbledore sagely, "I will have Mr. Fletcher removed from watch duty, however, he is still an asset to the Order."

"Asset my pale ass," Sirius murmured under his breath.

Minerva McGonagall immediately spoke up, staving off any further profanities from the other animagus, "How should we go about this, Albus?"

Dumbledore briefly steepled his fingers in contemplation before replying, "The alarm tied to the wards around his home has not been set off, which means the wards are still intact. He has either left willingly with an individual who does not have a dark mark, or he has left by himself."

Both Sirius and McGonagall sagged ever so slightly in relief. Tonks, however, remained rigid. "How do we find him?" she asked, "Surely with someone as important as him, you have tracking charms of some sort in place."

Albus gave his world-famous eye twinkle as he replied, "There is a fine line between protecting a person and holding them prisoner. While I would like more than anything to see him safely back within the wards at Privet Drive, I will not force him back there if he truly does not wish to go."

"Albus, what of the possibility of You-Know-Who having sent a death eater who hasn't taken the mark yet?" asked Professor Sprout nervously.

"Hmm… I suppose that is a possibility, and a rather disturbing one at that," The headmaster replied, "What do you think, Severus?"

The dark haired potions master spoke for the first time, "I'm confident that hasn't happened. If the Dark Lord had in fact captured Potter, he would have called his death eaters so he could gloat."

Dumbledore nodded, "Good, in that case, we will operate under the assumption that Mr. Potter is safe. We'll set up patrols in key locations; Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and perhaps near the public entrance to the Ministry to search for him."

The four teachers and two order members all agreed, before Tonks and Sirius left to Grimmauld Place in order to share the news with the rest of the Order.

"You reckon he found himself a girl, and that's why he left so suddenly?" asked Sirius jokingly.

Tonks rolled her eyes and swatted his shoulder.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

_In the possible event that both parents decease simultaneously, custody of their son, Harry James Potter, is to be granted to one Sirius Orion Black. Should Sirius Orion Black prove incapable of providing care of Harry James Potter, the chain of custody is as follows;_

_Remus John Lupin_

_Boudicca __Mór-ríoghain __McDougal_

_Peter Patrick Petigrew_

_Frank Algie and Alice Hestia Longbottom_

_Minerva Isobel McGonagall_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

_Andromeda Druella and Theodore Logan Tonks_

Harry read and re-read this particular passage nearly twenty times, willing himself to remember it word for word. While he knew most of the names on the list, he had no clue who Andromeda, Theodore, of Boudicca were. It saddened him to think that there were people his parents had considered to be enough of a friend to trust their only child with them, who he had never met. Had they died during the war? Were they unwilling to try and find him? Were they incapable of looking after him?

As these questions resounded in his head, he noticed the note that was folded and attached to the bottom of the page. Carefully unfolding the note, he began to read the unfamiliar handwriting.

_By the recent Decree of the Restriction of Lycanthrope Guardianship, the section of the last testament of Lily and James Potter regarding the custody of Harry Potter has been declared void by the Ministry of Magic of Great Britain, due to the illegal inclusion of one Remus Lupin, a registered Lycanthrope. As such, custody of Harry Potter shall be granted to his closest living magical relative; Narcissa Malfoy._

_Signed,_

_Delores Umbridge, Senior Advisor to the Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures_

Harry's knuckles turned white as he angrily gripped the note. It took all of his willpower not to tear the parchment into shreds right then and there. Who was this Umbridge woman, and who the hell did she think she was? Then, something from the end of the note suddenly struck him.

"I'm bloody related to the Malfoys?!"

Daphne, who had remained quite thus far, allowing him to read the will at his own pace replied, "Your paternal grandmother was named Dorea Black at birth. Her older brother, Pollux, had a son named Cygnus, who had three daughters. One of those daughters was named Narcissa Malfoy."

Harry gave her a questioning glance.

"What? I was forced to memorize the family tree of every important pureblood in Great Britain," she said, "I can tell you now that you're also distantly related to the Weasleys, and as far as I've been able to find, we aren't related. My family has a habit of marrying purebloods from other countries."

Shaking his head sharply, Harry asked, "but why am I not living with the Malfoys right now?"

Daphne shrugged nonchalantly, "Dunno. The records I've found seem to show you suddenly living with your aunt and uncle, and the Malfoy thing just dropped. It's as if someone covered it up."

Harry nodded sadly. As poorly as he was treated by his relatives, he shuddered to think about what life with the Malfoys would be like.

"Thank you," he said, "For taking me here. It means a lot."

"Yeah, it's fine, no need to get mushy on me," Daphne said, waving off his thanks, "Now, if that's everything, we should get going. The longer I stay here at the ministry, the more chance I have of my father finding out. Thankfully, he's gone to Estonia for the week, so I don't have to worry about a curfew."

With a doleful sigh, Harry set his parents' will on the desk beside the strange old lady and followed Daphne towards the lift, with thoughts of revenge against Delores Umbridge echoing in his head.

So wrapped up in his thoughts was he, that he nearly missed when the lift reached the atrium level, and almost forgot to follow Daphne out. He nearly bumped into the girl when she abruptly stopped in front of him.

Confused, her followed her gaze to the receptionist desk. There, the same man from before was surrounded by a crowd of people, each with a pad of parchment and a quill, furiously jotting notes down as the man spoke.

"I swear, there he was, Harry potter, and he had that girl, Greengrass' daughter with him. They both threatened to attack me, they did. They're both unstable, I tell you, the rumors are true!"

Daphne groaned as the receptionist cast a glance in their direction, and did a double take. "Look! There they are! Plotting against the ministry, no doubt!"

"If it weren't true I'd call him paranoid," Daphne muttered under her breath, quiet enough that not even Harry could hear. Cursing as the crowd of reporters started swarming towards them, she frantically looked around for a way out. Spotting the perfect opportunity, she whispered to Harry, "Follow my lead, and no matter what, act as nice as possible."

Harry didn't have time to reply, but he knew to follow her instructions. She was smart enough to find him, when no one other than his friends had, therefor; he was hoping she was smart enough to get them out of this mess.

"Miss Greengrass, does this mean you support the outrageous claims that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned?"

"Mr. Potter, is it true that you and Miss Greengrass are dating?"

"Mr. Potter, are the rumors that you and Miss Granger have broken up true?"

"Is it true that Miss Greengrass and yourself are attempting to overthrow the Ministry?"

Thankfully, Daphne was able to cut off the questions with a single name. "Minister Fudge!"

The reporters went quiet as Daphne began waving to a group of people making their way towards the lift. Weaving her way through the crowd, and pulling Harry along with her, Daphne approached the group.

It was then that Harry noticed that said group comprised of a very flabbergasted looking Cornelius fudge, accompanied by three other important looking wizards, and a witch that struck Harry as oddly toad-like.

"Mr. Fudge, it's so good to see you again!" crooned Daphne

"Well, yes, I-I-," Fudged stammered in confusion.

"You remember Harry, don't you?" she asked, pulling Harry forward.

"So good to see you again, Minister. Thank you again for your help with that nasty situation before my third year, that was really considerate of you," said Harry, remembering Daphne's instructions. He then offered his hand which Fudge instinctively shook.

Halfway through the handshake, Fudge seemed to remember what he was doing, and pulled his hand back as if it had been burned.

"Anyways, we really must be going. Take care, Minister!" Daphne sang as she sauntered away, closely followed by Harry.

"Not a word," they heard fudge hiss at the reporters, "of this incident will be made public. Do I make myself clear?"

"You're a bloody genius," Harry whispered in admiration as he and Daphne made their way towards one of the floo connections.

"Oh, I know," Daphne replied with a trademark smirk, "but you're welcome to keep saying it."

0-0-0-0-0-0

"So what do we do now?" asked Harry, dusting himself off from the fall he had taken as he exited the floo.

Instead of Answering, she gestured for him to follow. The duo exited from the Store they had wound up in, and merged into the crowd just outside. A cursory glance around told Harry that they were now in Diagon alley, making their way slowly towards the end where he knew the entrance to Knockturn Alley was.

"Well, we can't even hope to take down Voldemort, much less revolutionize the ministry by ourselves," She said in a low voice.

"So we ask for help?" questioned Harry.

"Exactly," She replied, "When we get to Hogwarts, we need to build up a group of people sympathetic to our cause."

"Why not ask Dumbledore for-"

"No!" She cut him off, "No Dumbledore. Don't get me wrong, he's one of the greatest, most powerful wizards this world has ever seen, but he isn't willing to do what it takes. In fact, I'm willing to bet he'd try to stop us from what we're doing."

Harry gave her a questioning look, "Dumbledore has always wanted equality amongst magicals. He's been an advocate of muggleborn and non-human rights for years."

Daphne rolled her eyes at him. "He's basically been begged to take position as Minister of Magic. If he was willing to do what it takes, he would have taken the job, and forced the changes himself. But instead, he's reserved himself to the sidelines, unwilling to upset the established order of things.

"You can approach him for help against the Dark Lord, but get it through your head; he will not help us fix the bigger problem!"

"Fine!" Harry grunted tersely, "I'm guessing Hermione and Ron aren't good enough either"

"No," she replied flatly, "In fact, they're probably the most likely to be willing to help us. They've already proven themselves willing to risk their own safety for you.

"Tell you what; you can be in charge of finding people from Griffindor and Hufflepuff who will help us, and remain quiet about it. I'll handle the Ravenclaws and the Slytherins. "

The two continued walking in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Daphne spoke up once more.

"You know, those reporters made me realize that us spending any amount time together will raise questions, especially in school," she said. "If I told them the truth; that I looked up your address and randomly stopped by, I look like a stalker, and people will want to know why you're agreeing to be around me"

"Simple," Harry said, surprising himself as an idea popped into his head, "Last year, I needed help with the second task. Knowing you were smart, I approached you for help. You agreed, and we became friends. Because you're a Slytherin and I'm a Griffindor, we decided to keep our friendship secret."

Daphne gave him an appraising look before turning into one of the many side alleys that branched off at the beginning of Knockturn Alley. "I'm impressed. That story even explains why none of our friends would have known about it. Although, that doesn't explain why we suddenly decided to make our friendship public. Unless…"

Harry tilted his head in question, "Unless?"

Daphne gave a wicked grin, "Unless we decided to progress beyond friendship."

Harry abruptly stopped walking and swallowed a dry lump forming in his throat. "Wh-what?"

"Oh, you know; we decided to start dating," She answered brazenly.

"I don't- I've never… I don't know how…" Harry stammered.

Daphne shrugged, "Meh, neither have I. It's a learning experience."

"But… what about-," Harry cut himself off, knowing exactly what he was about to say.

"What about Miss Chang?" asked Daphne with her usual smirk.

Harry blushed red enough to make the red shirt he was wearing look white.

"It's pretty obvious with the way you look at her. You really should be more discreet whenever you check her out, you know," Daphne said, trying not to laugh at his discomfort.

"Sh-Shut up," Harry stammered, trying to will the blood out of his face.

"Tell you what, you and I pretend to date; we snog a few times to keep up appearances, and then we pretend to break up, but remain friends. You even get some practice in that way, while Cho recovers from her loss of Cedric," She said.

The mention of Cedric's name instantly changed Harry's demeanor. "How were you doing magic earlier?" he asked, hoping to change the topic.

"Well," Daphne began, pulling her wand out of her pocket, "You see, I have this nifty little thing here. I forget what it's called, but it's rather useful."

Harry groaned. "You know what I mean."

"Simple. A couple years ago, I walked into the Department for the Misuse of Magic at the Ministry, and found a rather nervous looking intern. All I had to do was drop my father's name, threaten him a little, maybe even point my wand at him, and he was rather happy to have my trace removed," she replied happily, twirling her wand between her fingers.

Harry gaped at her. "You're being sarcastic again, right?"

"Nope," she replied matter-of-factly, "That's actually what happened, I swear."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Threatening someone with the name of your father; that sounds like a very Malfoy thing to do."

Harry was forced to back into a wall as he found Daphne's wand jabbing him in the gut.

"Never compare me to a Malfoy," she hissed.

Harry was about to apologize and beg forgiveness when a smile cracked through Daphne's hard expression. "The look on your face; you were ready to piss yourself, weren't you?"

Harry was about to reply in the affirmative, when a strange tingling ran down his spine, causing the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end.

"Get down!" he roared, tackling Daphne to the ground as a Jet of red light passed through the air where she had been standing a mere second before.

"Bombarda!" Daphne yelled from underneath Harry, pointing her wand in the direction the spell came from.

A gasp was heard from somewhere down the alley, just before an explosion rocked the pavement, sending small chunks of rock and dust into the air.

The two quickly rolled apart as a volley of red bolts scorched the patch of ground they had occupied.

"No good," hissed Daphne, "They're invisible, I can't see them! Homenum Revelio!"

As soon as the incantation left her lips, four human shaped silhouettes appeared down the alley, glowing blue.

With a mad flourish of her wand, Daphne sent a wave of stunners at their attackers. One of the silhouettes dodged the spells, while two of them brought up a shield in time. The fourth wasn't as lucky, and fell as the stunner struck them in the chest, causing them to collapse.

As the remaining attackers and Daphne all raised their wands, ready to strike again, Harry took note how oddly familiar two of the silhouettes appeared. Before a single spell could be fired, he threw himself between the wands and yelled, "STOP!"

Much to Daphne's surprise, two of the attackers immediately lowered their wands. Not taking any chances, Daphne kept her wand at the ready, training it on the lone figure who remained a threat.

"What do you solemnly swear?" Harry asked, facing there attackers, thoroughly confusing Daphne.

One slowly stepped forward, dispelling the disillusionment charm on themselves. "That I am up to no good," replied a tired, but relieved looking Remus Lupin.

0-0-0-0-0-0

_Your lives are classified! Nothing! _

_That's nothing had, forgotten in your hearts!_

_ No forces to be filled!_

_But gods have forgotten, this sonata to immortals!_

_By cutting off decaying mask from the callous face,_

_ You gave the light and hope in weaker hearts!_

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**Another thing in a review; one person asked if I would switch between 2010 and 1995. I wasn't planning on it originally, but I may do that if the demand is high enough, and I can work it into the story. So, please let me know how you feel about that.**

**Also, as this story will span over nearly 15 years, there will be plenty of room for different characters to date different people (as it is in real life). I also realize that there are certain pairing that some people loath (I for example hate Blaise/Tracey and Draco/Hermione). So, in order to make the least amount of people angry, I will be putting up different polls on my page asking about people's favourite pairings that involve certain characters (Daphne and Harry, for obvious reasons, will not be included). **

**By the time this chapter is posted, there should be a poll up in regards to Hermione. If you have any strong feelings on who she dates, please vote in the poll.**


	3. We Will Rise

**I want to thank user ****mendokusei**** for helping me bounce ideas around. Because of them, I've realized that this story needs to be more character and emotion driven, rather than action and event driven.**

**I'd also like to remind people of what I had said at the beginning of last chapter; the story doesn't seem that dark yet, but trust me, it's getting there. This chapter especially will seem rather "fluffy", but consider it the calm before the storm. Next chapter will begin right off the bat with some much darker material.**

**I'd like to also mention that the poll on who you think Hermione should be paired with in this fic is no longer up. As it is, Neville is in the lead, but as much as I hate to say it, as it makes it seem as if I disregard your opinions, I most likely will not be pairing her with Neville. At the very least, it won't be the final pairing for the both of them (unless someone can give me, through either PM or a review, a really good reason why to put the two together). Soon after posting the poll, I came up with a really good idea for Neville, and one I have never seen in any fanfic I've ever read. (Or, at least I thought it was a good idea)  
**

**By the time this chapter is up, I will have already posted a poll for Ron. This time, no matter what ideas I think of, I will go with the results of the poll, I promise. If I don't you have my permission to lynch me, and fill the review page with insults. **

**(I'm so sorry, I really do care what you guys think, I swear!)**

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**Chapter 3: We Will Rise**

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**January 28****th****, 2010**

Nymphadora couldn't bear to watch as the boy she had helped grow into a man was sentenced to pay the ultimate price for doing what he thought was for the greater good. _He had done it though; he had made the world a better place. Wasn't that worth it? He should be lauded as a hero, shouldn't he?_

Try as she might, she could not prevent that one small corner of her brain from feeling relieved. As guilty as she felt for it, a small voice in her head told her he deserved it. _He had betrayed them all, hadn't he?_

_But they had betrayed him_, she reminded herself sharply. So, she stayed where she was; her head buried in the shoulder of her favourite teacher as she bawled her eyes dry, her emotional turmoil wreaking havoc on her mind.

Through it all, she couldn't help but remember the very first time she had actually met that young man.

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**July 8****th****, 1995**

Nymphadora smiled brightly at the sight of Harry and Lupin hugging brazenly in familial recognition right in the middle of the alley. Silently she cursed the so called family he had been living with for not showing him the same affection the old werewolf was.

Over the past week of security detail, she had grown somewhat attached to the young boy, who in different circumstances, could have been raised as her own brother. A few times, she had to reign herself in as she had watched the magic fearing muggles lash out him. From the regretful reports she had heard from Dumbledore, it had been much worse a few years ago.

Her heart went out to the young wizard. His treatment at the hands of his family reminded her of the horrible stories she had heard from her own mother's upbringing.

A sharp cough drew her attention to 'Mad-eye' Moody as he hobbled on his wooden leg towards the embracing wizards.

"This is all very touching, but what about the girl?" he asked in his usual gruff voice, gesturing to the regal looking blonde that had discovered brandishing a wand at Harry mere moments earlier.

The blonde glowered at Moody as Harry answered… well, tried to answer, "This is Daphne Greengrass. She's my… um… well She-She…"

He trailed off, unable to finish through the raging blush on his face.

Remus' face split into a wide grin as Tonks began giggling like a schoolgirl.

"Blimey! Loverboy's got a girlfriend!" she exclaimed, stepping towards the thoroughly embarrassed teen.

"Er…" said Harry unintelligently, staring in confusion at the pink haired witch while trying unsuccessfully to fight down his blush.

"Oh, right," she said, "I haven't introduced myself yet! The name's-"

"Nymphadora," cut in Lupin.

"I will hurt you," She muttered, in mock threat as her hair flared a brilliant red.

"Sorry," said Remus with a shrug, "Sirius would have my head if I didn't."

"The name's Tonks, the friendly auror, at your service," she continued he introduction to Harry, accompanying it with an over-embellished bow.

"Tonks?" asked Harry, "As in Andromeda and Theodore Tonks?"

Before she could reply, Moody cut into the conversation. "That's enough chit-chat," he ordered sharply. Turning to Daphne, he asked, "You in Hogwarts?"

"Same year as Harry," answered the blonde, boredly examining the cuff of her sleeve, as if Moody wasn't worth the attention.

Growling slightly at her lack of respect, a fact that the other three had also noticed, he nodded to Lupin. "Confirm it," he commanded tersely.

With a nod, Lupin asked, "Alright, what form does a boggart take in front of you?"

Glancing up from her sleeve, Daphne replied, "Excellent choice, professor. As I did not get a chance at the boggart you showed the class on the first day, you and I would be the only ones who know the answer from your end-of-year practical exam."

With a small smile and a nod, Lupin encouraged her to continue. "A boggart takes the form of my father around me," she replied, earning a concerned look from Harry.

"I suppose you'll make me go back to the Dursleys?" asked Harry with a resigned sigh.

To his apparent surprise, Lupin answered, "No, actually, Dumbledore said that if you didn't want to come with us, we were to allow you to go where you pleased."

"In that case," said Daphne, possessively taking one of Harry's hands in her own, "We really must be leaving. We have big date plans, you see."

Harry nodded. "I'm not going back to the Dursley's any time soon."

"Actually," said Tonks with a sly grin, "We were supposed to take you to headquarters if you did want to come with us. I guess we'll have to tell Sirius that you won't be showing up any time soon…"

"Sirius?" asked Harry, "Sirius will be there?"

"He can wait," said Daphne, tugging on Harry's arm, "We really need to be-"

"Ron and the rest of his family are going to be there too," interrupted Remus.

"We're coming with you," said Harry, nearly instantaneously.

He was awarded an intense death glare from Daphne. "We'll talk later. Of that, you can be sure," she hissed venomously under her breath.

Remus smiled and glanced pointedly at Moody, who had his magical eye fixed directly on Daphne. Reluctantly, he drew a folded up scrap of paper from within one of his pockets.

"Remus, you take Potter, I've got the girl. Auror Tonks, go wake up Hestia," he ordered with a gesture at the downed figure on the pavement.

With chipper, Tonks bounded over to the fallen order member. An enervate later, and Hestia Jones sat up.

With a groan, she clutched her head and asked, "What happened to Harry?"

A quick glance over her shoulder told Tonks that the other four had already apparated away. "Oh, Remus and Moody just took him and his girlfriend to Grimmauld place," she replied?

"Girlfriend?" groaned out Hestia in confusion.

"Oh, remember that cute blonde that knocked you out?" Tonks asked with mirth, "That girlfriend."

Hestia groaned. "I attacked Harry Potter's girlfriend?"

"Well, tried to. The got your arse kicked by her," Replied Tonks with amusement, "Don't worry though; I doubt he'll hold it against you."

Hestia merely grunted and clutched her head in response.

"Uh oh," said Tonks with concern, "You may have hit your head on the ground when you got stunned. I'll help you to Hogwarts so you can get checked up on by Madame Pomfrey."

Hestia attempted to nod in thanks, but stopped with whimper of pain.

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Harry was in awe. The house he now found himself in was old and decrepit, and the stale air that filled it reeked of darkness. The disfigured shrunken elf heads that decorated the foyer unnerved him, and the hideous tapestries that littered the walls disturbed him. But over it all, the domicile radiated with magic, and on a subconscious level, Harry could feel the magic pulse through him. Harry felt at home here, even if the place could do with some redecorating.

"Harry!" an excited call drew Harry from his thoughts.

"Sirius!" he called in reply, throwing his arms open to admit the scruffy looking escaped prisoner.

As Harry and his godfather began catching up, Alastor Moody had pulled Daphne off to the side for a talk.

"So," He said, fixing both eyes on the Slytherin, "care to explain why you had your wand out at Potter when we found you?"

Most people would be unnerved, and even intimidated by the intense stare of Moody's electric blue magical eye. Daphne, however, was not most people, and she simply stared back with her two, equally unnaturally blue orbs.

"It was a joke," she replied coolly.

"A joke, eh?" he asked, skeptically.

"Yes, a joke," she confirmed.

"One hell of a joke," he grumbled. "And how did you say you met Potter?"

"I didn't," she replied with a shrug. At Moody's growl, she continued, "But, if you really must know, he needed help with the second task last year and came to me. As I wasn't busy locked in a trunk, I was able to provide my assistance."

Moody bore into her with his gaze for a few moments. "Watch your tone, Lassie," he warned before hobbling off in the direction of the kitchen.

"Creep," she muttered under her breath.

"Oh, Sirius, I want you to meet Daphne," She heard Harry say, and turned to face him and a long-haired man she recognized from several wanted posters sill posted in Diagon Alley. "She's my… er…"

"Really, Harry, how long is it going to take for you to be able to tell people that we're dating without turning into the Hogwarts Express?" she asked the now scarlet face wizard. "Daphne Greengrass," she said cheerfully, offering a handshake to the supposed criminal.

"Please to meet you, Miss Greengrass," He replied, returning the shake, "Sirius Black, mass-murderer, and public menace, at your service."

"If I didn't already know so," said Daphne with an amused smirk, "I would guess that you were related to the pink haired woman we met earlier."

"Ah, I guess you met my cousin," he replied with an equally amused grin. "So, how much money was it you just lost?" he asked, turning to Remus.

"Thirteen sickles," the werewolf replied with a slight chuckle, "but if I recall the wager correctly, I believe you've yourself lost 207 galleons."

"Wager?" asked Harry.

"Er… nothing important," answered Sirius hastily. "Anyways, I'd love to chat, but we have a meeting to get to," he said, gesturing between himself and Lupin, "Ron and the rest of them are upstairs. And Harry? Remember to use protection!"

The second the two adults were through the kitchen door, Daphne rounded on Harry, whose face was so red, she worried he may pass out at any moment.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" she seethed, "We had places we _needed_ to visit!"

"Relax," Harry said, his face returning to its natural colouration, "I figured the sooner we get here and meet everyone, the sooner they can get of the fact that I'm… I'm…"

"Dating?"

"Yeah, dating …a Slytherin," Harry replied.

"You really need to get over your whole embarrassment on the whole dating idea," Daphne said harshly.

Harry's cheeks tinged pink, causing him to silently curse himself for his inability to control his blushing.

"Sorry," he said, "I've never had a… a girlfriend before."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Here, the sooner you get used to it, the better," she said forcefully.

Harry was about to ask what she was talking about when she grabbed the back of his head. All questions died on his tongue as she forced his lips against hers.

The kiss was hard and overpowering, and Harry's neck hurt from the sudden involuntary movement. All in all, it wasn't very enjoyable. Harry would have to talk with Seamus and Dean when he got to Hogwarts, as the two of them had both bragged about how many girls they had snogged, and how great it felt.

Daphne suddenly let go and pulled away. "Well that _sucked_," she said, a hint of shock and curiosity making their way into her voice.

Harry merely nodded in response.

"So, shall we go face the music?" she asked, gesturing to the stairs.

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"So, did you tell them about Harry's girlfriend yet?" asked Tonks excitedly, as she popped suddenly into the dining room of Grimmauld place.

Remus pulled out an empty chair beside him and offered it to the auror. "No, we were just about to," he replied.

"Girlfriend?" asked Professor Flitwick, with much the same level of excitement as the young metamorphmagus, "Who is it?"

Most of the order members at the table instantly leaned in, anxious to hear Lupin's response.

"Daphne Greengrass," he replied, earning many groans from around the table.

Immediately, coins were dropped onto the table, and passed around to a single member of the meeting, who gathered up the coins with a faint, thin lipped smile.

"Greengrass?" asked Dedalus Diggle, "Isn't that the name o' one o' the blokes who was suspected o' followin' You-Know-Who? One o' Malfoy's people, who had the money t' stay out o' Azkaban?"

"Cygnus Greengrass was one of the Dark Lord's closest followers," confirmed Severus Snape in a bored drawl, "However, if his word is to be believed, his youngest daughter has always gone against his wishes, and his eldest has recently begun rebelling as well."

"Starting some time last year, right?" asked Lupin. Snape nodded. "Then that helps confirm their story that they met last year."

"Her actions so far don't warrant any suspicion as far as I'm concerned," added Sirius.

"She's disrespectful," grumbled Moody, "don't like her attitude."

"If disrespect was grounds for suspicion as a death eater," commented Snape, "then Mister Potter would be our prime suspect."

"Severus," Dumbledore said, with a cautionary tone. "Very well, I would like you all to operate under the assumption that Miss Greengrass means Mister Potter no harm. If, however, you witness any activity meriting suspicion, then please inform us immediately."

Glancing around the table, he noted as everyone murmured in agreement.

"Kingsley, have you come across any evidence of Death Eater activity within the ministry?"

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As Harry advanced slowly down the hall he had arrived in upon climbing the stairs, he began to hear voices coming from behind one of the many doors that lined the hallway. Deciding that this must be where he'd find Ron and the other Weasley children, he approached it. With a quick glance over his shoulder at Daphne, he took a brief moment to gather up his courage before knocking.

The second his knuckles came into contact with the wood of the door, the voices on the other sided shushed. There were a few seconds before he heard a single set of footsteps draw towards the door.

"Harry!" shouted an excited voice, the second the door was opened. Before he could register what was happening, her felt himself engulfed in a tight hug, and his vision was obscured by a fiery orange mane of hair.

As abruptly as it began, the hug stopped, and a wildly blushing Ginny Weasley took a massive step back. "Sorry," she managed to squeak out, before turning tail and running back into the room.

Her spot at the door was very quickly taken over by a grinning Ron, who took a minute to mutter, "Bloody mental women," before embracing Harry in a brotherly hug.

"Come on in, Fred and George are here too. We heard you went missing, what happened?" He asked, allowing Harry to follow him into a musty smelling room, covered in black and orange quiddich posters. Judging by the decoration, he assumed this was Ron's room.

"Harry!" came the familiar voice of Fred. Or was it George? Harry still had trouble telling them apart.

"Our partner in crime!" the other said as the both ruffled his hair.

With a laugh, Harry sat down on the only bed in the room beside Ron. Fred and George elected to stand, while Ginny sat at a desk in the corner, burying her burning face in her hands.

A sharp cough drew the attention of the five occupants of the room towards the doorway, where a slightly amused looking Daphne stood.

"Who's that?" asked Ginny, the sudden appearance of an unfamiliar face causing her to forget her previous embarrassment.

"That's Daphne Greengrass," Ron replied calmly, before doing a double take. "That's Daphne Greengrass! What are you doing here?"

With a grin, Daphne replied, "I'm here with my boyfriend."

Ron's head swiveled towards the Twins, who both vehemently shook their heads. Slowly, he turned to Harry, who after a tense pause, nodded.

"You're dating a Slytherin?" Ron asked, his jaw hanging loose.

"Er… yeah. We met last year…" Harry replied slowly.

Ron glanced over to Daphne, then back to Harry. Looking like he swallowed a mouthful of skelo-grow, Ron spoke, "And, you're happy?"

Harry paused. _Well that's a tough question to answer, _he thought. He had only really just met her, and for the most part, her sarcastic quips and comebacks had gotten under his skin. But, her heart seemed to be in the right place, and she had already gone out of her way to help him.

He took a moment to look over to Daphne, who upon meeting his gaze, gave him a pointed look look that said, '_well?_'

"Er… yeah. Yeah I am," he said, with a hint of hesitancy.

Slowly, Ron's face began to relax. "Ok," he said slowly, much to the shock of Harry.

"That's it?" Harry asked, "No accusing her of being a death eater? No yelling about evil Slytherins? Nothing about her using love potions?"

Ron shrugged. "I reckon someone like Moody would have noticed if you were under a love potion, mate."

"B-but…" stuttered Harry, "You're ok with me dating a Slytherin?"

"Not what I would have expected, "replied Ron, throwing a cautionary look at Daphne, "But I figure if you like her, she must be ok."

"So…" said Fred. Or was it George? _No, definitely Fred_, Harry decided. "Why don't you come in here and introduce yourself?" he asked the girl at the door.

"Sure," she replied, casually striding over to Harry, taking a seat in his lap, much to his chagrin. At her bold display, the twins gave Harry identical mischievous grins and began giving the apparent couple wolf whistles.

A very red-faced Harry immediately grabbed Daphne by the waist, picked her surprisingly light form up from his lap, and deposited her in the free space on the bed beside him.

"Don't do that again," he muttered to her under his breath.

She merely gave him an impish smirk, before offering her hand to Ron, who shook it, followed by the twins. "Daphne Greengrass," she said in greeting.

When she stretched her hand out to Ginny, there was a pregnant pause in the air as the youngest Weasley stared at the Slytherin girl with an expression similar to that of a kicked puppy. After receiving a nudge in the ribs from one of the twins, Ginny managed to squeak out a "Hello," and briefly brush her hand against Daphne's

Harry and Daphne spent the next quarter hour relaying to the Weasleys the made up story about how they met.

"I came into the library one day, to look for research material for an ancient runes project," she said, "and there he was, at one of the tables, flipping desperately through all kinds of books. I eventually took pity on him and decided to offer him help."

From there, they continued piecing together a convincing story, with Daphne's quick thinking filling in the minor details.

At the end of their story, Ron's face split into an ear to ear smile, before he broke into a full-body laugh. It took him a full three minutes to calm down enough to answer their questioning looks. "Just imagine how Malfoy's gonna react once he finds out!"

Although Harry and Daphne both grimaced at the possibilities, the twins collapsed in fits of laughter, and even Ginny managed a light giggle.

It was to the sight of her four youngest children laughing that Mrs. Weasley entered the room. "As happy as I am that you are all getting along," she said, drawing the attention of all six teens, "It's getting quite late. Harry, dear, you're welcome to stay here in Ron's room if you like. Daphne, we have an extra bed set up in Ginny's room for when Hermione arrives in a few weeks that you're welcome to use for now."

With a polite shake of her head, Daphne declined the offer. "Thanks, but I really must be getting home. My sister is probably getting worried about me, and I promised I'd tutor her in potions. Harry, can I say a few words with you in private before I go?" she asked, batting her eyelashes, causing the twins to hoot at a groaning Harry.

Once the duo was out the door, and a ways down the hall, Daphne began to speak, "That was much better than I could have expected."

"So you're not mad any more about me ruining your plans?" he asked.

With a huff, she replied, "No, I'm still mad, but this presents us with an opportunity. It seems like you'll be here for the rest of the summer, so, you have plenty of opportunity to convince Weasley, and once she gets here, Granger, to join us. In the meantime, I'll carry out what I originally had planned to do while I had you with me."

"And what would that be?" asked Harry

"Something that you would have found out first-hand about, had you not chosen to come here instead," she replied with a smirk, before striding away to the front door.

"I thought we were supposed to be partners in this," he whispered, quickly chasing after her.

"We are," she replied with a very serious tone, "that's why I brought you to the ministry to see something that benefitted you, not me. I promise that I'll tell you about what I plan to do later, once it's done. Right now, it's not important. All you need to worry about is getting your friends on board."

"Fine," Harry acquiesced, "When will I see you again?"

"Whenever my father next takes a lengthy trip away from the manor," she replied, "If that doesn't happen again over the summer, then we'll meet each other on the train."

"Right, well, bye then," he said awkwardly.

Daphne cast a look over his shoulder before saying, "Is that any way to say goodbye to your girlfriend?"

At his confused look, she once again placed a hand at the back of his head and tugged his face towards hers. As their lips met, so did their noses, causing them both to wince in pain.

"Well, goodbye then," Daphne said, pulling back from their second unsatisfactory kiss.

With a soft pop, she disappeared, leaving Harry to mutter under his breath, "bloody mental women."

"She seems nice," said a mirthful voice from behind Harry.

Instinctively, he whipped around to see a smiling Sirius, casually leaning against one of the decaying banisters of the staircase.

"Er, yeah, she's great," Harry replied, rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort.

"You made a lot of people a bit poorer by going out with her," said Sirius.

Harry gave him a playful glare. "That has something to do with the 'wager' you and Moony were talking about earlier, doesn't it?"

"Um… well…" Sirius said, glancing around the foyer frantically. To his relief, Lupin soon entered through the door to the kitchen. "Remus, tell him about the wager."

"Oh that?" Remus asked with a laugh, "A bunch of the Order members placed bets a couple weeks ago on who they though you would go out with once you decided to start dating."

"And who did you bet on?" asked Harry, rolling his eyes.

"I put down thirteen sickles on Miss Granger. Sirius here was heavily intoxicated at the time and put down a ridiculous amount, stating that he was adamant you would put together your own harem of veelas," he answered with a chuckle.

"Might have said something like that…" Sirius said sheepishly.

Harry was interrupted from responding when the kitchen door once more opened, allowing Severus Snape to stroll through. Snape gave Sirius a look of distain as he walked past, and Lupin a rather terse nod of acknowledgement. When he approached Harry, the young wizard expected some sort of condescending remark, insulting either him or his father.

He was pleasantly surprised when Snape merely said, "Potter, you'll do well to learn from Miss Greengrass," before exiting through the front door with a billow of his cloak.

"Snape won the bet," Harry said, staring at the front door.

"Snape won the bet," Sirius confirmed.

"I believe his exact words were 'If Potter possesses any intelligence at all, he'll choose a companion from my own house. As he has yet to show indication that he does, I fear I'm wasting my money'," said Lupin with a grimace.

"So he just bet I'd be with someone from Slytherin then. He didn't bet on Daphne?"

"That's right," replied Sirius, "but we all figured it was so unlikely, we let him have it."

Harry remained in the foyer for nearly a half hour, catching up with his godfather and the friendly werewolf, until Mrs. Weasley tracked him down and ushered him into bed.

A few hours later, Harry found himself lying awake in bed, unable to fall asleep. Judging from the lack of earth-shattering snores being emited from the bed on the other side of the room, Harry guessed that Ron was also still awake.

"Ron?" Harry called out hesitantly

"Yeah mate?" his friend responded

"Are you sure you're ok with me and Daphne?"

There was a moment of silence, during which Harry was worried Ron would answer with a 'no'. His fears, however, were for nothing as Ron replied with a serious tone, "I've had a chance to do some thinking; some real soul searching thinking. I let you down last year, mate. I should have believed you, but I didn't. I made the worst mistake of my life then.

"When I came crawling back, I had no right to be forgiven, but you forgave me anyways. It made me realize that you're the best mate a guy could possibly ask for. You've forgiven me when you shouldn't have, you saved my sister in our second year, when no one asked you to, and you've been there for me more times than I can count.

"If you say Daphne's a great girl, then I believe you."

Ron's answer took Harry a little off guard. Harry took a couple seconds to recover, before responding. "That means a lot, Ron. Thanks."

"Any time. You're my brother in all but blood," Ron replied. "Now, tell me, did you two snog yet?"

Harry's reply was to chuck one of his balled up socks at Ron's face.

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_Stereotype fools,  
Playing the game  
Nothing unique,  
They all look the same  
In this sea of mediocrity,  
I can be anything,  
Anything I want to be_

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**Yay! 3****rd**** Chapter in 4 days! Hope you all enjoyed!**

**I'm currently working on drawing the cover picture for this story. It should be completed and uploaded within the week.**


	4. Aggressive

**A few quick notes before getting to the story:**

**In this story, I'm trying to get away from almost all cliches I see in HP fanfiction (Ice Queen Daphne; meddlesome Dumbledore; useless, rude, stupid, and jealous Ron; Weasley (sans the Twins) bashing; letters from Gringots, retardedly rich Harry; heir to the founders and 50 other families Harry; ect.) As such, I've decided that once this story is done, I want to challenge myself to create a story that includes every cliche, but is still original.**

**I'm interested in possibly getting a beta, although I'm not sure what's involved in actually getting one. If anyone can tell me, please let me know via PM. **

**The poll on who you'd like to see Ron end up with is still open, please feel free to vote.**

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**Chapter 4: Aggressive**

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**June 8****th**** 1995 **

The wind howled through the numerous cracks within the decaying wood of the walls of a small, dimly lit shop, nestled along one of the many side alleys that branched off from Knockturn Alley. A steady _drip, drip, drip _of rainwater that permeated the old roof, which barely held together in its advanced state of dilapidation, echoed over the wind. The air within the shop reeked of mould, mildew, and the bourbon that clung to the breath of the frail merchant behind the counter.

The jingle of the bell just over the shop's door, which was just as tarnished as the rest of the tiny store, announced the entrance of a customer. The merchant was about to announce that the store was closed when he noted just what the newcomer was wearing.

The customer wore a long, black cloak, with a hood that obscured their face in shadow. This by itself was not odd; in this part of Knockturn Alley, most patrons chose to keep their identity a secret, and a long cloak with the hood up was the most common way to do so.

What drew the attention of the merchant, and caused his objection to the customer's presence, was the state of the cloak. It was in perfect condition; neither a single spot of dirt nor miniscule tear marred its fabric. The rain that fell outside merely beaded on its surface and easily rolled off, showing that a water repellant charm had been woven into its fabric. The shoulders of the cloak were the exact size of the wearer's and the hood just the right height for their head. It was clearly tailor made.

Whoever this patron was, they were clearly wealthy enough to afford the best apparel; a major contrast to the usual rabble the store generally catered to.

"Can I help ye' fin' sumfin'?" the dumpy little shopkeeper asked.

The shopper didn't respond, and instead gazed upon the wares that lined the many low shelves that littered the room.

"If yer' lookin' fer' sommat in particular, I'd be happy t' help," the shopkeeper said.

Finally, the patron seemed to take note of the man and strolled purposefully towards the counter.

"Jade," the cloaked individual growled out, in a voice that was clearly augmented by magic. "Four pounds of jade… and the spleen of a nundu."

The merchant's eyes widened. "Tha's gonna cost ye' a pretty penny. Hope ye' go' the coin."

Reaching into their robes, the patron pulled out a tied leather bag that jingled with coins.

With a nod, the diminutive man hobbled through a door behind the counter that led to a small store room. A few minutes later, the man returned with a block of green stone tucked under one arm, and a large jar cradled in the other. Setting the items on the counter, the merchant allowed the customer to inspect their purchases.

The cloaked figure first picked up the jar, and examined the shrived organ suspended in formaldehyde within. When they set the jar back down on the counter, the merchant expected them to nod and hand over the coin.

What he did not anticipate was when the figure drew their wand and pointed it directly at the store owner's nose. The man shrieked in pain as the skin on his nose began to bubble violently, until each bubble of flesh stretched too far and burst, splashing minute amounts of blood across the counter.

"This is a _Griffin_ spleen!" the customer roared, "Or did you not think I'd notice?"

The merchant, who had doubled over in pain managed to hiss out, "I swear, when the shipmen' came in, I got told it was nundu spleen, I was!"

The customer cursed under their breath before exchanging the jade on the counter for the bag of coins, and stalking towards the exit. At the door, they paused, as if contemplating something, before extending their armed wand hand towards the shopkeeper for a second time.

"For insurance," the cloaked person said, before a jet of blue light flew from their wand, striking the man, to seemingly no effect. "It's a key-word triggered, over-powered brittle-bone curse," the cloaked figure clarified, upon seeing the merchant's confused look. "You tell anyone that I was here, and your entire skeleton will turn to dust. It took me a long time to unravel the arithmancy required to create it."

With that, the figure slowly turned and walked out the door. The shopkeeper gasped and his face rapidly paled at what he had seen as his assailant left. The moonlight streaming through a gap in the ceiling had caught the cloaked individual at just the right angle that he had been able to see, for barely a second, the bone white mask covering the face underneath the hood.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Ginny Weasley was distraught. No, distraught was too strong a word. She was upset; very deeply upset. Little over an hour ago, she had learned that Harry Potter was dating someone else.

For a while, she had managed to convince herself that she was over her crush on her childhood hero. _It was juvenile,_ she tried to convince herself. _You only liked him because he's the Boy-who-lived_, she had told herself. Yet, the moment she saw him standing in the doorway to her brother's bedroom at Grimmauld Place, the feelings came rushing back in full force.

Granted, it was no longer the same childish hero worship she had clung to when she had first seen him for the first time, nearly five years ago, looking lost at King's Crossing. It had developed into something different when he had rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets and when he had lied to the student body of Hogwarts to cover up her involvement in those events. It progressed even further from there in her second year, when he had taken the time to help her through the trauma of having been possessed by Tom Riddle. Granted, Ron and Fred and George had helped too, and so had Hermione, but it was Harry's soothing words that had helped her to heal the quickest.

Then, when he had stayed with them before her third year, and she was able to spend the time to get to know him better, she had begun to appreciate Harry Potter the person, not Harry Potter the legend.

Ginny rolled over in her bed as a single tear rolled down her cheek, catching a sliver of the moon that pierced the mouldy curtains over her window. Ginny Weasley was in love with Harry Potter, and there was nothing anyone could say to convince her otherwise.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Astoria Greengrass sat cross-legged on the warm bearskin rug in front of the hearth of the upstairs study, soaking up the rays of heat from the crackling fire as she studiously worked on refining her writing skills. She had been doing this for hours now, never growing bored as she continued with her work. Most children her age would have gotten restless, opting to go do something fun instead. Still, Astoria persevered.

While most students her age at Hogwarts preferred to spend time with their friends, Astoria had no choice but to study. With the exception of her older sister, and that odd Ravenclaw a year her senior, no one wanted to go near her. For most of the school, it was because her father was a known death eater, even if he had supposedly been found innocent by the ministry. For the rest, it was because her father had paid their parents to ensure she was left in solitude.

So, to compensate for the overwhelming loneliness, she buried herself in her studies. Yet, no matter how hard she tried, and how much she studied, she was never able to compete with her perfect older sister's brilliant mind.

Yet, for some reason, despite all her flaws, her sister chose to stick by her. For unknown reasons, her sister loved her, when no one else was able to show her the meaning of the word. So, Astoria studied, in hopes that if she could become as smart, and one day, as pretty as her older sister, her sister would continue to love her.

A soft pop in the corner of the room drew Astoria's attention away from her writing. There, in the corner of the room, clutching a lump of green rock, was a figure in a long, black cloak and a familiar skeletal white mask.

"Hello Daphne," said Astoria, "Did you have a good time with Mister Potter?"

Daphne gave a genuine smile as she pulled off the mask and set down the heavy hunk of jade. Swiftly crossing the room, she plopped herself down on the rug, pulling Astoria into a tight embrace. "I did, 'Stori," she answered, "I really think he'll love you when he meets you."

Astoria smiled at the thought of a second person showing her any affection as she leaned into her sister's side. Within a few minutes, the two sisters were asleep on the rug, holding each other with the intention of never letting go.

0-0-0-0-0-0

**July 18****th**** 1995**

"Nghh!" Harry grunted as he slowly rose to a sitting position in his bed. He winced as a bolt of pain shot through his scar. With a shudder, he managed to force down the images of Cedric's glazed over, lifeless expression that had plagued his sleep that night.

A loud snore echoed in the small room, telling Harry that Ron was still asleep. He inwardly cursed. Aside from the first night at Grimmauld place, little over a week ago, he hadn't had a chance to speak to Ron one-on-one about the deal he had made with Daphne. Between Mrs. Weasley putting them and the rest of the Weasley children to work cleaning the house, Tonks' and the Twins' constant attempts to embarrass him about his 'girlfriend', and Mr. Weasley's questions about the purposes of various muggle devices, his days had been far too busy.

Nights were out of the question, as Ron would always be asleep when Harry entered the room to prepare for bed, and would sleep in hours later than Harry.

Deciding that he wouldn't be going back to sleep any time soon, he quickly got dressed and headed downstairs. Walking past the downstairs study, he heard snippets of a conversation. Immediately recognizing the voices as Fred, George, and Tonks, he decided to eavesdrop, on the chance that they were conspiring to embarrass him once more.

"I am not telling you _THAT_!" He heard Tonks hiss indignantly.

"Aw come on!" one of the twins replied.

"Yeah, it's merely for the sake of curiosity," said the other.

"We won't tell anyone, we swear."

There was a brief pause before Tonks managed to squeak out, "_No_!"

"You know we'll keep asking until you tell us," one of the twins threatened.

"Or would you rather we get Sirius to help us out?"

That did it for Tonks. "Ok, ok, ok. Fine, I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone else," she hissed. The embarrassment in her voice was almost palpable. Anticipating a juicy piece of blackmail he could hold against her next time she decided to pester him, Harry leaved in against the door to hear more clearly. "The answer is no," she said slowly, "when I use my metamorphmagus ability to take on the form of a man, I do _not_ grow a penis."

Well that was something Harry could have lived without hearing. Quickly backing away from the door, he made his way towards the kitchen to grab a bite for breakfast.

Inside, he noticed Ginny, Mr. Weasley, and Sirius already eating breakfast, while Mrs. Weasley busied herself with numerous flying pans that sat on the stove, filled with eggs, bacon, and hash browns.

Harry sat down beside Sirius, who was at the head of the table; a copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in one hand, a fork with a strip of bacon speared on it held loosely in the other. Across from Harry, Arthur sat, garbed in a set of formal robes, quickly finishing off the scraps of breakfast on his plate. At the other side of the table, Ginny seemed to be playing with her food, staring at her plate with a bored expression.

"Anything interesting?" Harry asked Sirius, gesturing to the newspaper.

"Not really," Sirius replied with a shake of his head, "Just the usual headlines; 'Harry Potter: The Boy-Who-Fibbed', 'Albus Dumbledore; Has He Finally Cracked?', 'Minister Fudge: Adonis Incarnate'."

Harry raised an eyebrow in a questioning look.

"Ok, I may have made that last one up, but it's not that far off the mark," Sirius admitted with a lopsided grin.

It was then that Mrs. Weasley placed a heaping full plate in front of him. The succulent aromas of the food wafted through his olfactory, causing him to nearly drool in delight.

With a courteous "Thank you," and an appreciative smile to the Weasley matriarch, he dug in. Arthur had apparently finished his meal, as he rose from his chair, and with a wave of his wand, vanished his now empty plate.

"Thank you Molly," he said, planting a peck on his wife's cheek, "that was absolutely delicious. I'll see you after work. Bye Ginny!" With a nod, he also added, "You as well, Harry, Sirius."

Harry waved his goodbye, turning his attention to his plate. The three ate in relative silence, with Sirius once in a while breaking it to quote amusing or ridiculous lines in the paper. Eventually, Ginny gave up on trying to finish everything on her plate, and stood up, casting a brief look of longing at Harry that was missed by everyone, before dropping her plate in the kitchen sink before busying herself with helping her mother.

"Sirius," Harry said, gaining the attention of his godfather.

"Yes, pup?" he asked, setting down the Daily Prophet.

"Do you know who Andromeda Tonks is?" he asked.

With a broad smile, Sirius replied, "Why, that's my cousin. My hag of a mother burned her off of the family tree when she ran off with her boyfriend, who was a muggleborn. They got married and had themselves a kid, who you've met."

Harry's eyes widened, "Nymphadora!"

Sirius chuckled, "Yes, but don't let her hear you say that. I've seen her charm Moony's shoes to stick together for a whole day when he said her first name too loudly."

Harry smiled briefly at the mental imagery. Then his face changed to a more serious expression. "What about Boudicca McDougal?" he asked.

Sirius gave a sad smile. "Now there's another witch who hated her first name. She preferred to go by the Anglo-Saxon version of it; Victoria. Funny, both her namesakes were very famous queens.

Victoria was a Ravenclaw, a year younger than your parents. Lily took her under her wing, and the two quickly became close friends. After school, she chose to join the order alongside your mother. Then, when you were born, she was named your godmother."

"My godmother?" harry gasped, "Where is she now?"

Sirius' expression turned sombre. "She died, shortly after you were born. Death eaters attacked her home, and she held them off so that her brother could escape with his kid."

Harry felt his shoulders sag. "Oh," he said, in shock. "What about Narcissa Malfoy?"

"Cissy?" asked Sirius, "I always liked her, but she never got along with your parents. Of course, my opinion of her went downhill after she married Lucius. I haven't heard from her since about a year before I went to Azkaban… what's with the questions?"

"I read my parents will," Harry answered, "Andromeda Tonks and Boudicca McDougal were both people I should have gone to, but the ministry disregarded it because Lupin's a werewolf. They decided I should go to the Malfoys instead."

Sirius reeled in shock. "I had not heard that before," he said numbly. "I'll ask Dumbledore about it next time I see him."

"Thanks," Harry replied weakly.

"Anytime, pup," Sirius replied, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Now, if you're done with your breakfast, I recommend going to get cleaned up before Molly sends you to clean the house," he said with a faint grin.

With a nod of acceptance, Harry get up to head to the room he shared with Ron.

0-0-0-0-0-0

"There's blood on her mask," Growled Cynus Greengrass, as he carefully examined the mask that he had so proudly kept in pristine condition for over thirteen years. Every week, he would carefully remove the mask that had belonged to _her_ from the display case to lovingly clean and polish it. That was what _she_ had always done, and now that she had left, he would do it until _she_ returned to him.

But someone had taken _her_ mask while he had been in Syracuse for the week. Someone had worn it, and someone had gotten blood on it. That someone would pay dearly for thinking that they could wear what had belonged to _her_.

"Astoria!" He roared, casting a sonorous charm to magically project his voice through the manor.

It was less than a minute later that the timid little girl entered cautiously through the door.

"Compedio!" shouted Lord Greengrass, not giving her the chance to speak. Chains launched from the tip of his wand, wrapping themselves tightly around Astoria's wrists and ankles, pinning her to the ground.

Lord Greengrass grinned victoriously. 'Compedio' was much more effective restraining spell than 'Incarcerous', as the chains it created could not be severed by a simple diffindo. But, most importantly, it left the majority of the victim's body free from bindings, leaving them open to punishment, which was exactly what Cygnus needed.

"Did you really think you could be anything like _her_?" He jeered at the girl on the floor, "Or did you simply want to tarnish _her_ memory by ruining what's left of _her_?"

"Father, I don-," she whimpered before being cut off.

"There's blood on her mask!" he roared, aiming a powerful kick to her ribs.

Astoria winced in pain, as she felt the snap in her side, she knew at least one of her ribs was fractured. But, she clamped down on the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. She knew she was weak and useless. She had been told that many times by her father. But she did not desire more pain. She knew that if she showed her weakness, she would be punished for it.

"You useless mudblood!" yelled Cygnus, aiming another kick to her other side.

Again, Astoria hissed in pain, but she would not shout out, she would not cry.

"Did you really think I wouldn't find out?" he shouted, harshly stomping on her stomach.

Instinctively, Astoria curled into a ball as she struggled desperately not to cough up blood.

Cygnus was done playing games. Pulling out a knife from his pocket, he leaned over the girl on the floor and ripped her hands away from her face. With a sadistic grin, Lord Greengrass began trailing the tip of the knife along her left cheek, carving an intricate pattern in her flesh.

Beneath him, Astoria supressed whimpers. Her father had cut her before; with knives, swords, and even with spells, but never had it hurt so much. Each stroke of the blade burned her skin like fire. The lacerations left behind were like trails of flame licking the exposed muscles underneath.

Cygnus Greengrass pulled his blade away from his daughter's face to examine his handiwork. Deciding he like what he saw, he brought the blade up to her other cheek in preparation to continue on the other side. That's when something hard struck him in the side, causing him to stumble away from the bleeding girl.

Whirling to face whatever attacked him, he saw his eldest daughter crouching protectively over Astoria, her wand raised in a shaking hand, and a look that promised pain in her tear filled eyes.

"You will not hurt her any more, you fucking bastard!" She growled.

0-0-0-0-0-0

When he entered his room, Harry was pleasantly surprised to see Ron awake. He was even more surprised to see him sitting in his bed, with a spell book open in his lap.

"You're reading?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Ouch," Ron said in mock offense, "I know how to read, you git."

Harry chuckled, "I realize that, but I'm shocked you're reading a schoolbook without Hermione making you do it. Especially when there's food downstairs."

Ron shrugged, "I'll go eat later," he replied, "The sooner I let them know I'm awake, the sooner mom's gonna put me to cleaning."

"Smart move," Harry replied, pulling a fresh pair of socks from his trunk. Tonks had kindly brought it to Grimmauld Place the first full day he'd been there when he realized he didn't have a change of clothes.

"Hey Ron," he said, sitting down on his bed, facing his best mate. "Your dad works with the ministry, he must know; do they actually discriminate against muggleborns there?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," Ron said, setting his spell book aside, "Last year, Percy and his girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, both applied for entry level positions. Percy got in immediately, and Penelope, who from what I heard, had better NEWT marks, and was applying for a lesser position, was rejected completely because she was muggleborn."

Harry grumbled, "That's not right."

"Yeah," Ron agreed, "After that, Penny broke up with Percy. George reckons they had a row about it. 'Course, Percy has been getting into a lot of arguments with people who don't agree with the ministry's decisions. He and Dad had a big argument just before you got here because he agrees with Fudge that You-Know-Who's not back."

That hit Harry hard. Sure, he'd never been extremely close to Percy, but to think that he'd believe Fudge first made him feel wounded. "I hear Fleur's trying to move here," Harry said, trying to shift the conversation away from Percy's betrayal.

"Oh, yeah," said Ron, "She and Bill started dating last year. She's been trying to come over to Britain, but the ministry's been denying her employment everywhere. Bill's been trying to get her a job with Gringotts, since that's entirely in goblin territory; the ministry has no jurisdiction there."

"Something needs to happen," Harry muttered, just loud enough for Ron to catch.

"What d'ya mean?" he asked curiously.

"Daphne and I have been thinking," said Harry, "and we both realized that the whole system running the ministry is broken. It needs to be fixed."

"I agree," said Ron. "Hermione's been saying the same thing for a while now too."

"So," Harry continued, "Daphne decided that it's not going to fix itself. Someone needs to fix it. Someone like us."

Ron's eyes bugged out at Harry, "Mate, that's crazy. There's no way we can do that. It would be you, me, Daphne, and maybe Hermione against the whole government! Hermione's brilliant, and if what you've said about her is true, so is Daphne, but we're 15!"

"That's why we get other people to help us," Harry replied.

"Look, mate, I agree with you something needs to be done, but I'm not sure we're the ones to do it!" Ron nearly cried.

Harry grit his teeth in frustration. If he couldn't convince his own best mate, how was he expected to convince anyone else? He _needed_ to be able to get Ron on his side. "Have you ever heard the saying; 'all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'? How about 'with great power comes great responsibility?'" at Ron's shake of the head at both, he pressed on. "The first one Hermione told me about, and the second was from one of Dudley's comic books. They both basically say the same thing; if you can do something good, you should."

Ron still didn't look convinced, so Harry continued, "Your family always gets picked on, or looked down on because they don't hate muggles. They get frowned upon for simply choosing not to think less of other human beings based on what they have no control over. Now, does that seem right to you?"

"No," Ron mumbled out.

"Well," Harry persevered, "imagine a world where your family would be applauded for upholding the very values they should. Imagine a world where you're not known as Ron Weasley; the friend of the Boy-Who-Lived, but as Ron Weasley; the hero that helped make this world a better place."

Ron looked at Harry, a look of resolution glinting in his eyes. "Ok," he said, "I'm in".

Harry was about to let out a sigh of relief, when the door burst open to reveal a frantic looking Tonks.

"Harry, come with me. It's Daphne."

At those words, an icy dread filled his veins.

0-0-0-0-0-0

With a pop, he and Tonks found themselves in a tiny, rocky island. Barely thirty feet away stood a smouldering ruin of what once must have been a majestic mansion. Nearby the ruin, Moody, Dumbledore, and a tall, dark skinned wizard he had learned to be named Kingsley Shacklebolt seemed to be struggling to contain the fire.

To his right, he noticed Remus and a witch he recognized from the group that had ambushed himself and Daphne a week earlier, kneeling beside a blood covered body; desperately muttering spells to keep them from bleeding to death.

Fearing the worst, Harry scrambled over to see what it was. When he got close enough to see who it was, he let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. It wasn't Daphne, although it did very much look like a younger version of her. This must be Astoria.

Eventually, Lupin and the other witch stopped muttering and lowered their wands.

"She's stable enough to be transported," Lupin said weakly.

Beside him, Tonks spoke, "I'll make a portkey to St. Mungo's then."

"No!" Harry cried, startling the group. "Her father is probably the one who did this to her. Daphne told me he was abusive. If we bring her somewhere public, he'll find out."

"Right," Tonks said, "I'll go talk to Dumbledore about making a portkey to Hogwarts so Pomfrey can treat her."

With that, she got up, leaving Harry with the two Order members, and the still unconscious Astoria.

"What happened?" He all but demanded.

The witch who's name Harry didn't know spoke up. "Dumbledore posted me and a few others to alternate shifts to keep watch here, at Greengrass Manor, ever since it became known that you and Daphne were dating. He figured she'd be the most likely target for an attack, since you were inaccessible.

"About fifteen minutes ago, the house just burst into flames. It wasn't just any old fire either, it was fiendfyre."

At this, Remus gasped in shock. "Feindfyre? What's that?" questioned Harry.

"It's a type of very powerful and complex magical fire. You can't just put it out either, you usually have to let it run its course," the witch explained. "So the house was ablaze, and I panicked and sent Dumbledore a patronus. Then, Daphne came out with this girl here, and left her with me. Then she just ran back into the house before I could stop her… and… and…"

"Where is she?" Harry asked.

The witch shook her head. "She never came back out."

0-0-0-0-0-0

_We'll wait for the rain to fall_

_To clean the blood that is on us all_

_While we pray kneeling in the corn_

_One day we'll also... be... aggressive_


	5. Revolution Begins

**Random thought I've had for a while that I feel like sharing; a lot of fanfics have Harry use the word '**_**mundane' rather than 'muggle', because muggle is supposedly offensive. Well, let's look at what the dictionary says about the word mundane, shall we? "**_**Lacking interest or excitement; dull." – Google Dictionary. "****Common; ordinary; banal; unimaginative." – . How is that less insulting than a made up word?**

**Also; here is my public response to a few things that have repeatedly come up in the reviews:**

**Concern 1) Daphne so far seems very manipulative of Harry, and seems to be simply using him. **

**So far, this is an accurate assessment, but as the story progresses, she'll grow closer to Harry. Don't forget; my purpose is to avoid the clichés that a lot of Daphne/Harry fics fall victim to (in this case: Daphne immediately falling for Harry and Daphne being completely benevolent).**

**Concern 2) Be careful that this story doesn't get too dark and turn away readers.**

**I say at the beginning that this will have a darker theme. Consider that my equivalent of the viewer discretion warning that comes up at the beginning of movies. If dark themes bother you, don't read it. The show Dexter and the anime/manga Death Note are both extremely popular, and they're about psychopathic serial killers. This won't turn into something like The Hills Have Eyes, but it will have torture, violence, murder, and conspiring. That's not to say there won't be bits of lighter material interspersed to add a bit of comic relief. And in the end, it won't be a complete Shakespearean tragedy.**

**Concern 3) Daphne seems a little too powerful/knowledgeable.**

**I explained it best in a PM I sent in response to a person who posted a review; "****Daphne does seem a bit all knowing, but keep in mind that between her father's intolerance of mediocrity, and her desire to protect her sister, she's been forced into this position. However, in the future, she'll start to come to terms with what the extent of her power really is." She is not some god-like deity. She, as she is at this point in the story, would lose within seconds in a duel with someone like Voldemort or Dumbledore. She is extremely intelligent, but she lacks experience, and she lacks power.**

0-0-0-0-0-0

**Chapter 5: Revolution Begins**

0-0-0-0-0-0

**July 18****th**** 1995**

Astoria had been lucky, it turned out. As Madame Pomfrey ran multiple diagnostic spells on the young girl, she discovered several broken ribs that could easily have punctured several internal organs. It was a miracle, according to the mediwitch, that between being porkeyed and carried out of the burning manor, she had survived long enough to make it to the Hogwarts medical ward.

On top of the broken ribs, Astoria had suffered from a fractured pelvis, torn ligaments in the arms and legs, a ruptured spleen from blunt force trauma to the stomach, several cracked vertebrae, and lacerations on the face that just wouldn't heal no matter what spell was used on them. Eventually, Pomfrey had to resort to muggle means, and stitch the wounds on her cheek together.

The mediwitch had also come across indications of bones having been broken and then healed several times in the past, as well as repeated exposure to the cruciatus curse. It was not too far of a stretch to guess that the girl had suffered even further injuries in the past that simply did not show up during Pomfrey's diagnosis.

She now lay unconscious in one of the many beds in the hospital ward as Madame Pomfrey's many potions and healing spells slowly worked their magic, knitting her many injuries together. Harry sat vigil in a conjured chair at her bedside. Nothing any of the Order members had said to him had earned a response; not their words of comfort, not their words of reassurance, or even the news that an arrest warrant for Cygnus Greengrass had been written up, and was ready to be made official.

Harry wasn't sure why Daphne's disappearance (he was adamant she wasn't dead) affected him so deeply. He had known her for a week, and even then, he had only spent a single evening with her. Her condescending comebacks had quickly gotten under his skin, and the two chaste kisses they shared were less than satisfactory. She wasn't really his girlfriend, she wasn't even really his friend, and yet, he had felt some kind of connection to the girl.

Maybe it was her sincerity in wanting to keep her sister safe. Maybe that's why Harry now found himself watching over Astoria, keeping Daphne's spot warm until she was able to return.

0-0-0-0-0-0

"What is our next course of action with regards to the situation with Daphne, Albus?" asked Professor McGonagall, her questioning gaze boring into the Headmaster.

Albus Dumbledore stared back, his eyes lacking their usual twinkle. A quick sweep of the room told him that every pair of eyes was now on him. Some eyes held sadness, some held desperation, and all were beseeching an answer to the question posed by the Head of Gryffindor.

Albus sighed, dropping his eyes to the desk before him. One hand began massaging the temple on the right side of his head, while the other idly stroked Fawkes' plumage. It was times like these that Albus felt every bit his age. Sensing the headmaster's inner turmoil, Fawkes offered a sad trill.

"I fear there is not much we can do," he answered in a hoarse voice, "If Miss Greengrass did manage to survive that fire, I suppose it's possible she may have taken refuge at the house of one of her friends from school. Otherwise, there is always the much more disturbing possibility that Lord Greengrass survived as well, and has taken her as a prisoner to Voldemort, for her relationship with Mister Potter."

Many at the table let out a sharp gasp. Septima Vector let out a shuddering sob. The normally stoic arithmancy professor had been deeply distraught upon hearing the bad news about one of her favourite students.

"Severus," continued Dumbledore, "I'm sure I don't need to ask, but if you do discover this to be the case, please inform me immediately."

The potions master nodded obediently. "Of course, headmaster," he replied.

"It has long been my belief that love is the most powerful force on the planet; more so than any magic. While I don't know the true depth to Mister Potter's relationship with Miss Greengrass, the news that Harry had found someone had filled me with immense hope," The aged headmaster said, as he slowly stood and took position near the window of his office to peer down at the grounds below. "And I have hope that Miss Greengrass is safe. She is a brilliant and resourceful young witch. If Mister Potter, who knows her better than any of us, believes she is still alive, then that is enough to ease my mind."

He turned and faced his audience, seeing fewer dejected faces then he had when they collected.

Mundungus Fletcher chose that moment to speak up. "That's all well an' good, but hope ain't gonna help the girl out if she's a goner. I mean, you can say 'I hope this' an' 'I hope tha'', but hope don' bring the dead ta' life."

The headmaster watched sadly, as a wave of doubt spread through the room. Professor Vector was once more on the verge of tears, while beside her, Tonks' unconsciously allowed her hair colour to darken.

Both Remus and Sirius cast Mundungus a disdainful look. The short, alcoholic wizard at least had the decency to look mildly ashamed for speaking out of turn.

Albus, on his part, suppressed the urge to give a tired sigh. Mundungus had been trying his patience for the last few weeks; between his neglect during his turn to watch over Harry, his stealing from Grimmauld Place, and the general unrest some of his poorly timed comments elicited within the order.

_I will not lose my temper, I will not lose my temper_, Albus chanted within his head. It wouldn't set a very good example if he, the supposed leader of the light, were to maliciously attack one of his Order members, would it?

"It does not do to underestimate the power of hope," he said evenly, but with renewed vigor, "Hope is what leads us to safety when we wander a dangerous path. Hope is what pushes us to victory, when we are on the brink of defeat. Hope is what drives us forward, whenever there is reason to turn back.

"We must always have hope," He intoned, casting pointed glances at every pair of eyes he could see, "that we will find Daphne Greengrass!"

0-0-0-0-0-0

Daphne sneezed.

"Someone's thinking about you," Said the always bubbly Tracey Davis. "I bet it's your new boy-toy, Potter."

Daphne scowled at her friend. She loved Tracey to death, but right now she was causing Daphne no end of annoyance.

Last year, over the winter holidays, Daphne had persuaded Tracey to allow her to leave a pair of trunks, one for herself and one for Astoria, filled with emergency sets of clothing, an extra set of the next year's school supplies, and various other items she may need, in the possible event that they were cast out of Greengrass manor. When she arrived at Davis Manor, with the intention of retrieving those trunks, and immediately heading to Grimmauld Place to ensure Astoria's safety, Tracey forbade her from leaving until she was completely healed herself.

Daphne had been covered from head to toe with cuts and bruises from the spellfire she had briefly exchanged with her father before he decided to set the mansion ablaze, as well as numerous scorch marks from when she had ran back into the inferno. Now, Daphne was forcibly bedridden, swaddled in enough bandages to make her question where her sarcophagus was, and involuntarily made to answer all of her friend's numerous questions about her fake relationship with Harry Potter.

"So, have you shagged his brains out? Is he slow and gentle, or is he rough and dominating?" Tracey nearly squealed.

Daphne groaned and attempted to roll over with her limited mobility.

"Oh no, is he _that_ bad at it?" Tracey asked with a mock gasp.

This was the reason Tracey and Daphne had loathed each other for their first year and a half at Hogwarts. Tracey had been so carefree and lovey-dovey, it had made Daphne sick, and Daphne had been, to quote Tracey from their first year, 'a complete fun-sucker'. Of course, Tracey was still as lovey-dovey and as carefree as ever. At least Daphne had managed to lighten up quite a bit; as much as someone forced to live with the monster that was her father could be.

Looking back on it, Daphne decided that her current fiery and sarcastic attitude was a result of Tracey's influence.

The friendship between the two Slytherins began in the middle of their second year, when Draco Malfoy had been running his mouth about the attacks on muggleborns that had been occurring, and how all 'those good for nothing mudbloods' deserved what they got. Both Tracey and Daphne, on opposite sides of the room, who had heard enough of his ranting, unknowingly sent simultaneous hexes at the Malfoy heir.

The result had been a multi-coloured Draco that was only able to squawk like a bird each time he tried to speak. From there on, the two girls managed to develop a close bond, despite their polar opposite personalities.

"He's a magnificent beast," Daphne drawled sardonically with a roll of the eyes, "Oh how my loins ache for him"

Tracey huffed. "Come on Daph, you can tell your bestie. How is he?"

Daphne growled at the nickname; Tracey knew she hated it. "Fine, honestly, we've only kissed twice."

Tracey's resultant giggles caused Daphne to groan. "How did he react? Oh tell me he made that goofy grin blokes always make after a good snog. It's so adorable!"

"Actually," Daphne replied dully, "He seemed kind of disappointed afterwards. And he resisted both times I pulled him into the kiss."

"Oh," Tracey replied dejectedly, "That sucks."

"Yeah," Daphne replied with an uncaring shrug, immediately regretting it, as a sharp pain invaded her shoulder.

"Well," Tracey said seriously, "you can't force romance. You just gotta let it build naturally."

"From the way a lot of the boys at school look at us girls, you'd expect it to be a lot easier," Daphne replied with a snort.

Tracey vehemently shook her head. "No, those kinds of guys are in it for lust, not love. Trust me, if you can get a guy to fall in love with you, the snogging will get exponentially better."

Daphne hummed, idly storing this information away. She wasn't all too concerned about love or romance for the time being. Her 'relationship' with Harry was merely a cover story. As long as he helped her achieved her goals, she didn't really care either way if Harry loved her or hated her, though for convenience, she preferred that he at least tolerated her.

"So what's the rock for?" Tracey asked unexpectedly, pointing at the chunk of jade now resting on Daphne's luggage.

"A project," replied, being purposely ambiguous. _A project I could be working on right now, if you didn't insist on watching over me like a hawk_, she added wordlessly to herself. Though, she supposed she shouldn't be too ungrateful. It was heartwarming to know that Tracey cared that much about her.

"A project?" asked Tracey, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yes a project," Daphne replied dismissively, "for school; runes. Look, it's not important."

"If you say so," Tracey said, giving her a look that told her she didn't quite believe her, but was willing to drop the subject. "So… tell me more about Potter."

Daphne buried her face in her pillow.

0-0-0-0-0-0

When Astoria slowly awoke, whole body ached and the gashes on her cheek stilled throbbed in pain. But they were mere annoyances compared to when the injuries were first inflicted.

Carefully, she opened her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar environment. The air here smelled of healing salves, skelo-grow, and various other medical potions, but no trace of her elder sister's subtle scent; something that was akin to fresh fallen rain. It was such a faint scent that few noticed it, yet one that Astoria had always attributed to safety and comfort. The fact that she couldn't detect it caused her to begin to panic.

Then, she noticed the form of a man sitting in a chair at her bedside. Her heart immediately rate began racing. The only man she knew well was her father, and her father would hurt her if he found her.

But this man was not her father; his hair was darker, his eyes were a more vivid colour, and his face held a much gentler expression. As her eyes ventured towards his forehead, she inspected his lightning bolt scar. _So this is Harry Potter_, she thought, as she began to relax a little. Her sister had said he would love her, and her sister was always right.

Harry then noticed her awakened state and gave her a charming smile. "Hi, Astoria, how are you feeling?" he asked, in a calm and soothing voice.

"Daphne?" she asked in a pleading tone.

For a split second, Harry's expression wavered. It was brief, but Astoria noticed it. Astoria was good at noticing the slightest change in facial expressions; she had to be to know when her father was angry. Was Harry angry at her too?

Harry reached out his hand to place it atop one of Astoria's, but the girl flinched away at the contact. Harry internally winced; he had seen that behaviour before. He himself had done it, his first year at Hogwarts, whenever Hermione hugged him. Harry was not a vindictive person, but it was at that moment that the Boy-Who-Lived resolved himself to make sure if the Greengrass patriarch was still alive, he would pay for his crimes. He would pay for the way he treated this innocent girl.

"Daphne's gone out for a bit. She'll be back in a while," he said soothingly.

"Oh," was Astoria's dejected response.

Astoria was disappointed that Daphne wasn't there. But that was fine; she was used to disappointment. Every time she wished her father would start to love her; every time she wished her mother would appear, and save her and Daphne; every time she wished she had a friend other than her sister, she found herself disappointed.

With a small sigh, she let her sore body sag into the hospital bed.

"Don't worry," Harry said soothingly, "She'll be back soon. In the meantime, I'll protect you, ok?"

With a morsel of lingering hesitancy, Astoria nodded her consent.

With a hint of a smile on his face, Harry watched over Astoria as she drifted back to sleep, before following her soon after.

0-0-0-0-0-0

**July 23****rd**** 1995 **

Harry watched from the far end of the Black family library as Ginny and Astoria exchanged small-talk. Ever since three days ago, when Astoria had been discharged from Madame Pomfrey's care with a clean bill of health, and had been moved to Number 12, the shy young blonde had formed a bond with Ginny. The youngest of the Weasley clan was very understanding of Astoria's very withdrawn personality, and shared her trait of inherent shyness.

Harry was very happy upon seeing the tentative friendship the two girls had developed. Ginny had been rather downcast ever since Harry had arrived, and needed someone to bring her out of her shell. Astoria, it turned out, was in desperate need of a friend. Aside from her sister, a handful of her sister's friends, and, from Astoria's descriptions, a very bizarre sounding girl that Ginny was able to identify as Luna Lovegood, the youngest Greengrass daughter hadn't met very many people her own age who treated her with anything better than dismissal.

"Do you like any boys, Astoria?" Harry heard Ginny ask.

The blush and violent shaking of the head that Astoria gave in response was the most energetic action Harry had seen the girl make since he had met her. For the most part, she seemed rather lethargic.

"Oh! So you do!" Ginny said with a giggle. "Well, if you don't want to tell me who, that's fine. I understand. I doubt I'd be willing to tell anyone who I like."

Astoria mumbled something under her breath that Harry couldn't discern from where he was at the other side of the room. Whatever it was, it had Ginny blushing, and frantically attempting to cover the other girl's mouth.

"Ten galleons and a muggle pound say I know who it is she fancies," grumbled Ron as he sat himself on the couch beside Harry. "At least she can handle being in the same room as you without squeaking and running away now."

"Almost as bad as that one bloke who asked to see my scar when he first met me," joked Harry, giving his friend a pointed look.

"Hey, I was eleven!" Ron replied as his ears went red.

"So was Ginny," Harry stated simply.

Ron glowered. "Ok, point taken. You wanna play some chess?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Sure. I didn't feel like playing a game I could win anyways."

"I'll keep that in mind next time you want to play quiddich at The Burrow," Ron laughed, pulling out a chess board from under a nearby coffee table.

Suddenly, there was a sharp knocking at the front door.

"What the bloody hell?" said Ron to no one in particular, "did someone lock the door?"

"Whoever it is, I wish they'd stop," Harry said, "They're going to wake up-"

"-MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS! IN MY HOME!? FILTHY DIRTY-" came the high pitch wail of Walburga Black from the foyer.

"-her," Harry finished with a wince.

"I'll get it, I'll get it," Sirius grumbled as he marched into the room, and disappeared through a door on the other side. "Heads will roll when I find out who locked the door," Harry managed to hear Sirius say on his way.

It took about a minute for the shrieking of Sirius' mother to cease, and then, "Harry!"

"Better go see what Padfoot wants," Harry muttered, leaving Ron to finish setting up the chessboard. As he stood, he noticed on the other side of the room, Astoria had huddled into the foetal position, and looked to be on the verge of tears. Apparently Walburga's bigoted slurs had reminded her of too many traumatic memories involving her abusive father.

He wavered between heading over to make sure she was alright and checking with Sirius, when Ginny wrapped her arms around the young girl. Astoria initially flinched, before relaxing into the redhead's protective embrace.

Deciding she was in good hands, Harry made his way into the hall and down the two flights of stairs required to reach the front door. When he arrived, he saw something that made him freeze.

"Hi Harry," said Daphne; her characteristic smirk plastered on her face.

0-0-0-0-0-0

"You ran back into the house; the one that was on fire with inextinguishable, cursed flames… for books?" Harry uttered in disbelief.

He was now huddled back in the library, with Daphne, Ron, Astoria, Ginny, the twins, and a smattering of Order members, including Dumbledore, Snape, Tonks, and Moody, as Daphne attempted to explain her whereabouts for the past few days.

"I told you, the Greengrass library held many priceless, one-of-a-kind, and irreplaceable books. Any one of the books I managed to rescue would have been worth the risk," Daphne replied with a roll of the eyes.

"Risking your life for a couple of old books," Ron blethered, "Hermione will love you."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Daphne said her usual smirk, as she stroked the hair of her sister, who had fallen asleep with a contented smile in her lap, "Granger received the highest over-all mark of our year, last year; the first time anyone has beaten any of my scores. If you say I would win the approval of the smartest witch in our year, then I must have done something right."

"So, if we were to ask your friend, this Tracey Davis," Mad-Eye spoke sceptically, "She'd tell us the same thing you did."

"On my honour as a Greengrass," replied Daphne, "Whatever honour my father hasn't tarnished, that is."

"Speaking of," Said Harry, "Do you reckon your father survived the fire?"

"I know he did," Daphne answered with a scowl, "It's been five days now, and I haven't received a letter informing me of any inheritance. As his only pure-blood relative within Great Britain, I'd be the sole beneficiary of his will. Of course, now he's probably gone and changed that."

"You're certain?" asked Harry?

"Positive," she stated simply, "The bastard is unfortunately still alive and kicking. Would have been easier on us all if he had just died."

"Surely you don't mean that, Miss Greengrass," Dumbledore said in an astonished voice.

"Of course I do," Daphne replied, throwing a glare at the headmaster, "My father tried to kill my sister. He would have succeeded if I hadn't intervened. He then tried to kill me too. Do you think I had time to care whether or not he survived the encounter?"

With a soft, sad voice, Dumbledore spoke, "There is a difference, Miss Greengrass, between killing in the heat of battle to protect yourself, and wishing the death of a person after the fact."

"With all due respect, Professor," Daphne nearly snarled, "My father has killed countless of innocent people. He _will_ kill countless more. If he had died in his fire, then his death would have prevented the death of those who deserve to live."

Dumbledore nodded sagely, "Yes, Miss Greengrass, I can fully appreciate your conclusion, having come to the same one myself when I was your age, but we cannot cast our own judgement upon criminals. We do not have the authority to do so."

"And those that do have the authority don't _fucking_ do so!" Daphne snapped. "My father never so much as faced a trial because he waved his money to those with the supposed authority. And even if he had; even if he had, even if had been judged guilty; he would have ended up in Azkaban. No prison sentence is severe enough for that man!" Daphne had tears leaking down her cheeks at this point.

Dumbledore was about to speak, but Daphne immediately cut him off. "Don't give me any cock and bull about Azkaban being secure. You have only to look at him to know that it's not!" She shouted, aiming her pointer finger at Sirius.

With that, she looped one arm under Astoria's legs and one under her shoulders, and carried the still sleeping girl as she stormed out of the room.

With a heavy sigh, as if a heavy weight had been placed on his shoulders, Dumbledore sagged into his seat. "'The ends justify the means'; 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few'; 'for the greater good'. There have many who have set out upon the same train of thought that Miss Greengrass now follows. We must ask ourselves; is it worth it to stoop to the same level as our enemies?" he asked simply.

"Mister Potter, I leave her in your hands. Please look out for her. Otherwise, I call this meeting adjourned. Alastor, Nymphadora, I would like to speak with the two of you in private before you leave," He said, as he stood.

Taking his leave, Harry went to find Daphne. It was a few minutes later that he found her, in the room that Mrs. Weasley had made up for the two sisters. Daphne was tucking the sleeping form of Astoria into bed.

"Is she alright?" he asked.

"Seems to be," Daphne replied evenly. "Still a little shaken up about the last time we saw _him_, but she seems happy to be here; partly because she's out of his reach, and partly because she's in good hands. Thank you for looking after her," she said, offering him one of her rare smiles.

"It was nothing," Harry replied, "I know she means the world to you. We may not be really dating, but you're still my partner."

Daphne gave a light laugh, "Look at you, talking about dating without turning into a sputtering tomato."

Harry shrugged, "I guess I got used to it from the teasing that Fred, George, and Tonks gave me since you showed up."

"Sounds like we both have something in common," Daphne said, supressing a shudder, "Tracey was relentless. She was really disappointed that you and I hadn't shagged."

That caused Harry to go red-faced. "W-what?" he squawked.

"And there's the Harry we all know and love," said Daphne, rolling her eyes.

Before Harry could say any more, there was a knock at the doorway. The duo turned their heads to see Ginny standing there.

"I agree," Ginny said in a serious tone, "With what you said earlier, about how murderers need to be put down."

"Ginny," Harry whispered, staring at the youngest Weasley in confusion.

"Astoria is a good person. I'm happy to say that she and I have gotten to know a little about each other over the past few days." The redhead continued, "And anyone who would treat someone like her the way she's been treated is not human. They're a monster that needs to be stopped, using any way necessary, before they hurt again."

"Ginny, I agree," said Harry slowly, "but are you sure that's really how you feel."

"There isn't a doubt in my mind," she replied. "When I was possessed by V-V-Voldemort, in my first year, I felt so helpless. Every time he would take over, I would immediately forget what had happened afterwards. Now, bits and pieces of my memory are slowly coming back.

I remember how powerless I felt each time he took control of my body. You have no idea what it feels like to be forced against your will to hurt people. To fear the possibility of killing someone you love, because another person forced you to..."

She trailed off, tears leaking openly from her eyes. Taking action, Harry stood and wrapped his arms around her slight frame. He could feel her shudders as she sobbed into his chest. Gently, he stroked her back, allowing her to let out her tears.

He would later look back on the event, and realize how natural it felt to simply hug the girl. He had never initiated a hug before, and he had never had to comfort an emotional female, yet it felt natural to him to comfort Ginny. He decided that although he didn't reciprocate the attraction the youngest Weasley felt for him, he did hold some form of affection for her. If Ron was his brother in all but blood, and Mrs. Weasley was the closest thing he had to a mother figure, then it stood to reason that Ginny was like his younger sister.

Eventually, her crying subsided, and she was able to continue speaking. "Dumbledore says we should let the ministry take care of our criminals, well, what about V-Voldemort? He deserves a worse punishment than Azkaban," she said, her voice muffled by Harry's shirt.

"Life is too good for that abomination," Daphne agreed.

"Ron told me that you two wanted to make changes. He didn't say what kind of changes, but I'm guessing that would make men like them pay in full for their actions," Ginny said with resolute conviction. "If that's the case, I want to help."

"That is one of the many goals I had in mind," said Daphne. "We want to revolutionize the world; no more inequality; no more unfairness. Your help would be much appreciated."

Wiping away the last of her tears, Ginny stepped out of Harry's embrace. With a steely glint in her eyes, she stared hard at Daphne. "I'm in," she said.

0-0-0-0-0-0

_The stage is not set,_

_The road is not chosen,_

_Your __fate__ not preordained;_

_They are losing control,_

_Every step of the way._

_Never too late to stand your ground,_

_Revolution begins!_


	6. Any Means Necessary

**A bit of a shorter chapter this time, sorry. Not too much happening yet, but next chapter, I'll be bringing two more important characters. It's a slow start to this story, but by the time Christmas break (in story) comes, there will be a lot going on.**

**So yeah, enjoy!**

0-0-0-0-0-0

**Chapter 6: Any Means Necessary**

0-0-0-0-0-0

A bolt of deep magenta shot from the end of Cygnus's wand, just clipping Daphne on the shoulder as she tried desperately to dive out of the way. She hissed as the curse sliced through her skin like a hot knife through butter.

The pain was so intense that she didn't notice the cyan streak of light that impacted her forearm, instantly shattering her Radius and Ulna. Her wand clattered to the floor as she dropped to her knees, clutching her now useless arm.

"Pathetic little _girl_," Cygnus hissed, slowly stalking towards Daphne's downed form.

Daphne held back a whimper. Two spells; just two simple spells and she was down for the count. Her entire life, all she knew was power. Without much effort, she had easily risen to the top of her year at Hogwarts. Then, when she went to the ministry, the people there were happy to bend over backwards to serve the every need of the great Greengrass heiress. In Diagon Alley, whenever she wanted something, she had nearly limitless money to buy it.

Never had she felt so powerless and small then she did now at the mercy of her father. This was unacceptable; she shouldn't be this weak; if not for her own sake, then for the sake of her sister.

One glance at the prone and bloodied form of Astoria gave her the renewed strength she needed. In a flash of motion, her wand was now clutched in her still working hand, a stunner at the tip of her tongue.

What happened next was all a blur. Wave after wave of curses were exchanged between the two Greengrasses. Suddenly the tone of the battle chanced. No more were simple cutters and stunners cast; instead, the brilliant green streaks of killing curses, the rich violet of blood boilers, and the sickly puce of organ liquefiers lit up the room.

It was pure adrenaline and sheer animal instinct that kept Daphne moving. A few times, she came close to being hit, while the use of her non-wand arm caused all of her return spells to sail far too wide of their mark. His years of experience in the first war made itself clear, as Cygnus wove together intrucate chains of curses that caused Daphne's shields to groan under stress. She was being pushed back and she knew she would lose unless her father made a grievous mistake. Unless she could pull a miracle out of her ass, there was very real possibility of her and her sister's deaths.

In one last stitch effort, she unleashed nearly every ounce of magic she still had in her into one banishing charm, sending every loose item in the room sailing in the direction of her father.

It was a moment of triumph as she watched a ceremonial sword that had been mounted to the wall pierced her father in the leg. His roar of agony caused her to sigh in relief. Little did she expect what would happen next.

Like a vision of hell itself, a serpent spun of pure flame escaped from her father's wand. The head of a rabid wolf emerged from within the serpent's maw. More beasts of all shapes and sizes bubbled like some demonic nightmare from the fiery flesh of the snake, each one in turn made of the same cursed flame of its parent.

0-0-0-0-0-0

**July 24****th**** 1995 **

Daphne sat bolt upright, her wand in hand, immediately pressing it against the throat of the figure whose presence had woken her from her reliving of her frantic battle against her father.

"Good reflexes," a familiar voice grumbled.

"Do you usually enjoy watching teenage girls sleep?" She asked with a glare.

"Good reflexes, but bad attitude, as usual," Mad-Eye amended.

Daphne cast a quick glance at her sister's empty bed, hesitant to take her eyes off the man she still held at wand point. "Do you have a reason to be here?" she asked, "And where's my sister?"

"Your sister's been awake for a few hours now. Last I saw, she was with the youngest Weasley," the grizzled ex-auror replied, indifferent to the wand that was pressing against his jugular. "As for why I'm here, Dumbledore wants you and Potter to receive a bit of training while you're here. He figured you might need it if your father showed up again. I volunteered to train you personally."

"Well, I'm sure you expect me to feel flattered," said Daphne haughtily, "But I find your obsession with me to be a little creepy to be honest."

Mad-Eye guffawed. "I just wanted an opportunity to wipe that arrogant smirk of your face."

"There is a difference between arrogance and confidence," Daphne replied smartly.

"The difference," Moody growled, taking a step away from Daphne's offending wand, "is having the skill to back your words up. That's what I'm about to find out. We'll start with silent spell casting. You must disarm me, without saying the incantation. If I hear you make a single sound, you'll get a stinging hex; call it incentive."

Daphne growled at the man, earning a slight jolt of pain across the cheek. "I said no noise," he said, "I'd hate to return Potter his girlfriend with welts all over her pretty face."

0-0-0-0-0-0

Meanwhile, Harry was not having much fun either.

"Right, so silent casting," Said Tonks in her usually cheerful tone, "Our first lesson will be a practical one."

With a flick of the wrist, she shot an unknown spell at the barely awake Harry Potter. Harry attempted to cry out in indignation, but when he opened his mouth, no words came out.

"Silencing charm," Tonks explained with exuberance as she headed to the doorway, "Oh, and I'll be locking this door on my way out. You must either unlock the door or dispel the silencing charm if you want out. I've explained to everyone in the house not to help you in any way."

Harry pulled his wand from his pocket. With a pointed look at her as if she was insane, he gestured vigorously between himself and the wand.

"Oh, don't worry about underage magic," Tonks explained, "We're under the fidelius. The trace on your wand won't work so long as you're here. Anyway, cheerio!"

With that, the door shut behind her, and the click of a deadbolt sliding into place was heard.

0-0-0-0-0-0

That night at supper, Daphne, who had a series of welts on her face, glowered at Moody. It had taken her a little over an hour, but she had finally managed to silently disarm the veteran. He had kept her there for another few hours until she was able to consistently repeat the same results.

Harry, on the other hand, had not managed to complete his task. Instead, in a bout of accidental magic, he had blown the door of his and Ron's bedroom of its hinges. He ate quietly, giving Tonks a few sheepish looks whenever he caught her looking his way. She had promised they would try again the next morning, but this time with an unbreakable charm on the door.

Daphne quickly finished the food on her plate, and quietly excused herself from the table. As soon as she was in her room, she closed the door, and pulled the project she had been secretly working on over the past few days from her trunk. While she was at Tracey's, she managed to get a few hours of reprieve from her friend. When she was alone, she had begun crafting a piece of jade she had broken off from the larger chunk into a much more usable shape.

Now, she held in her hands, two perfectly fitted halves of a hollowed out ring made of the beautiful green rock. Digging through her luggage once more, she pulled out the second part of her project; apple wood, with a core of dragon heartstring; her father's wand.

In the midst of her struggle with the man, she had miraculously managed to disarm him. From what little she knew of wand lore, she was certain the allegiance of the magical implement now belonged to her. Giving it a test flick, alongside a muttered "lumos," she confirmed this.

Good. She didn't need the scrutiny of purchasing a second wand from Olivander's, and she was unwilling to sacrifice her own ebony wand.

Grasping her father's former wand at both ends, she gave a sharp twist of her hands, the wand snapped cleanly in two. Delicately, she extracted the now exposed dragon heart string, and placed it within the hollowed out groove in one of the halves of her handmade ring. A quick sticking charm sealed the two halves together, and then placed it on her middle finger.

Extending her closed fist in front of her, Daphne clamped her eyes shut, focusing all her will on her ring, and muttered "lumos". In apprehension, she slowly slid one eye open, and stared at the ring on her finger. Nothing.

She cursed under her breath. She needed to research more into the field of wand lore if she was going to get this project working.

_Later_, she thought, as she heard footsteps out in the hall that were approaching her door. Hastily, she tossed the two halves of the now broken wand into her trunk, and withdrew a small stack of books.

The bespectacled visage of Harry soon appeared in the doorway.

"Catch," Daphne said, as she tossed the top book on the pile at Harry. His seeker reflexes kicked in and he snatched the hurtling book from the air before it managed to smack him in the face.

"What's this?" he asked, staring in confusion at its blank cover.

"One of the books I rescued from the manor," She replied, flopping onto her bed with another one of the books, "that one in particular is one of my great-uncles' journal. Johannes Swano was one of Grindelwald's top generals. He alone was responsible for the conquest of Scandinavia during the war."

"Grindelwald?" Harry gasped, "You mean the dark wizard Dumbledore defeated back in the forties?"

"You know another Grindelwald?" Daphne asked with a simper. "And say what you will about Grindelwald, and how he was an evil, dark wizard, but the man was a genius."

"You're kidding, right?" Harry asked in disbelief.

Daphne set her book aside and stood to face Harry. "Grindelwald nearly conquered all of Europe. The last time anyone magical else so much as conquered a country was nearly three centuries ago. Do you really believe a moron could have accomplished something like that?"

"Well, no…" Harry stammered.

"Exactly! The man may have been sick and twisted, but he was brilliant!" Daphne nearly shouted. "He was one of the few dark lords to have attained his power through sheer skill and tactics, rather than rituals and un-natural magical enhancements. Besides, He tried to do what we will be doing. It would be wise to study what he did right, so we can repeat it, and what he did wrong, so we can avoid making the same mistakes."

"We'll be doing the same thing?" Harry asked incredulously.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Obviously for a much better cause, but ultimately, we will replace each ministry in the world with one of our own; one that actually works."

"Whoa!" Harry said, "I didn't agree to conquer the world. I don't want to become some sort of warlord; I just want to fix the unfairness in Britain; that's all!"

Daphne gave him a hard stare. "Do you really think that's fair? We fix our own country, but leave others to suffer?"

"…Leave others to suffer?" Harry mimed in confusion.

"Yes, others!" Daphne snapped. "Britain is just the tip of the iceberg; do you have any idea what life is like for muggleborns and non-humans? All over the globe, there are corrupt governments oppressing the people they should be looking out for. In America, nearly every second law restricts the freedom of anyone who is not entirely human. In Russia, the hunting of werewolves, mermaids, and centaurs is encouraged. In China, there are pureblood aristocrats who own muggleborn slaves. In many eastern European countries, veela are sold as sex objects."

Daphne stood panting after her little rant, having nearly forgotten to breathe during it. Harry stood still in shock at her revelation.

"I'm sorry," Harry said after a few minutes of uneasy silence.

"So we're in agreement?" Daphne asked?

Harry wanted to say no; it all seemed so over the top. Yet, he allowed himself to reflect on what Daphne had said. He pictured Hermione in rags, working endless hours to serve some pureblood's every whim, being starved and beaten as he had as a child. He pictured Remus, running for his life from a group of wizards who wanted a bit of a thrill. He imagined Fleur and little Gabrielle being sold like cattle, to join the collection of some lecherous aristocrat.

"Ok," Harry managed to whisper out. "I'll do it, but from here on; we are partners. We are equal. You let me in on every single one of your plans, and you take my ideas with as much consideration as my own."

"That's more than acceptable," Daphne said. "In that case, sit down; let me outline what I've planned out so far. Since we're partners, let me know what you think."

With a nod, Harry and Daphne took a seat on her bed. A flick of her wand, and two muttered incantations later, the door had been locked and silenced.

"As I've said before, we need others to help us," Daphne began, "We've already agreed to begin recruiting within Hogwarts, but schoolchildren alone aren't going to cut it. We need to recruit people who are outside of Hogwarts, and of-age. Thoughts?"

"I agree. We need people to help us get better; beyond what's taught at Hogwarts. We need to know how to fight, especially if we're facing Voldemort and his minions. So, we need people who themselves know how to fight," Harry replied.

"Not just that," Daphne added, "But people who have experience fighting. It's not about how much you know, but how you apply what you know that makes all the difference."

"In that case," Harry said, "Professor Lupin and Sirius are good choices. And since they're already training us, why not Tonks and Professor Moody?"

Daphne pursed her lips in thought, "Agreed on the first three if we can convince them away from Dumbledore, but there's no way we're recruiting Moody. He's too close to Dumbledore to be convinced away, and even if he wasn't, I would refuse to work with that man."

Harry gave her a questioning glance.

"It's personal," Daphne explained, "Anyways, on top of those three, I would see if we can convince the two oldest Weasleys to our side. One's a curse breaker; that could come in handy, and the other is a dragon handler. While I doubt we'll run into many dragons, he has to have an extensive knowledge of high-powered spells that will affect such a magically powerful creature. Also, do you happen to keep in touch with either of the Beauxbatons or Durmstrang champions?"

"Fleur and Viktor?" Harry asked, "Not with Viktor, but I bet Hermione still does. Fleur's sent me a couple of letters. Apparently I managed to make an impression on her little sister, Gabrielle, and she doesn't know any English, so Fleur translates."

Daphne tried but failed to suppress a wide grin. "Perfect. Bulgaria has the second highest veela population proportionally of any country on the planet. If we can get Viktor on our side, we could get him to be an emissary of sorts to the Veela there. With Fleur being a part veela herself, we could gain the alliance of a lot of veela."

"Not to mention, they were picked by the goblet for the Triwizard Tournament," Harry added.

"Excellent thinking," Daphne replied, "Their fame from that, not to mention Krum's quidditch career, will attract a lot of people."

"Actually, I was thinking more of the fact that they must be good with magic if the goblet chose them," Harry said, giving Daphne a hard glare, "I don't intend to use people for their fame. Is that why you chose me?"

Daphne cast a smirk at him, "Oh yes, I chose you because I wanted your personal autograph."

"Daphne, I'm serious," Harry growled, "Are you, or aren't you using me for my fame? Equal partners, remember?"

Daphne rolled her eyes, "I chose you because I had heard rumors of what you had accomplished during school. If even one of them is remotely true, then you have a lot of magical power, and potential to become even more powerful. That and I figured you would both sympathize with my cause, and you were likely the only person outside of Slytherin that would give me a chance."

"Really?" Harry asked, his voice softening.

"I'd be willing to swear it under an unbreakable vow, if you'd like," she replied nonchalantly.

"Er…" Harry hesitated, "…that's fine."

Daphne nodded. "Back to the plan; I figured we should take a year to build up our support and resources before we go ahead and do anything. Voldemort will likely be doing the same thing anyways, so there's no harm in waiting. The real harm comes with forcing our way forward while being unprepared."

"So what are we supposed to do for the whole year?" Harry asked.

"Same thing as Voldemort," Daphne replied, "Rally supporters, set up an information network, train, research, develop tactics; those kinds of things."

"My head's starting to hurt just thinking about all that," Harry groaned.

Daphne smirked, "Why I am not surprised?"

"Ass," Harry muttered.

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Micromanagement, Harry. We set up an 'inner circle', and each member of that inner circle takes control of a certain part of our operation. That way, we don't handle absolutely everything ourselves."

"Smart," Harry said.

"I'm aware I am, thank you," Daphne replied. "Anyways, we can't start fleshing out our long-term goals until we have our inner circle members."

"So we can't really do anything until September?" Harry asked.

"We can train," Daphne shrugged, then tapped the cover of the journal Harry still clutched in his hand, "and study."

"Well then, I guess I'll go 'study'," Harry said, standing up.

"Good night, Harry," Daphne called to him as he passed through the doorway.

"'Night, Daphne," Harry replied.

0-0-0-0-0-0

**July 25****th**** 1995 **

The next morning, Harry woke up when an involuntary shiver shot down his spine. Something was wrong. Harry immediately shot to his feet, wand in hand. He immediately noticed an armed figure at the doorway. Without hesitation, he whipped his wand at the intruder; a stunner at the tip of his tongue.

Only, the incantation wouldn't come out. His mouth moved, but no words came out.

"Sorry, Harry, more non-verbal training," his would-be victim said jovially.

With that, a stinging hex sailed from Tonks' wand, causing Harry to wince as it hit him square in the nose.

"Now let's see if you can dodge the next one, or better yet; deflect it with a shield," Tonks instructed, nearly laughing at the expression of displeasure on his face.

An hour and a half later, a very sore Harry was internally panicking. He had managed a non-verbal spell, but it wasn't the shielding spell Tonks had expected. A stunner took them both by complete surprise, and knocked Tonks out cold.

He was now kneeling beside the unconscious body of Tonks, furiously thinking, _Enervate! Enervate! God damn it, enervate!_

0-0-0-0-0-0

A stinging hex splashed harmlessly against the magical barrier Daphne had silently erected.

Moody grunted tersely in approval. "Right, you've got non-verbal casting down. Let's see if you can use that in a duel. Non-lethal spells only and no spoken incantations."

Daphne readied her wand.

Moody began counting, "Begin in five… four…" suddenly, there was a flash of red, and Daphne's world went dark.

0-0-0-0-0-0

"Rule number one," Moody growled as Daphne slowly came to, "never let your opponent set the pace of the battle."

Slowly, Daphne rose to her feet, clutching her pounding head. "That means never wait until your opponent is ready. You start the battle on your own terms."

Seeing Daphne wobble unsteadily on her feet, Moody slashed his wand, letting loose a leg-locking jinx.

The jinx struck Daphne dead on, causing her to lose balance and come crashing down. Another lazy wave of the ex-auror's wand, and Daphne lay on the floor disarmed.

"Your father was a damned good duelist. How you managed to beat him, I'll never know. You'd be useless in a real fight," he growled, inspecting the jet black wand he now clutched in his hand.

_Useless_. The word rang harshly in Daphne's ears. Suddenly, something in Daphne's mind snapped.

With a feral roar, she lunged at Moody's wooden leg, knocking him off balance. With a swipe of her hand, she snatched both her and Mad-eye's wands out of his hands. In a single fluid motion, she dispelled the jinx that held her legs together, and then turned her wand to point directly between the mismatched eyes of the ex-auror.

"Now that's more like it," Moody growled out with a crooked grin. The grin quickly faded, however, when Daphne refused to move the wand from his face.

"I'm not useless!" Daphne choked out between sobs, as tears flowed openly from her icy eyes, "Aurors who don't do their job; they're the useless ones!"

"Put the wand down, lassie," Moody said, "You don't want to cause a scene. Not when the headmaster is just a floo call away."

Daphne held the wand against the scarred bridge of his nose for a few more seconds, before hesitantly lowering her trembling wand to her side. With as much force as she could muster, she slammed Mad-eye's wand into his chest before sinking to the floor and unleashing a torrent of tears.

It was at that moment that Harry rushed into the room, gesturing wildly down the hall to where his room was.

"Aye," Moody said, dispelling the silencing spell that was still in effect on Harry. "I'll deal with whatever it is that happened with Nymphadora, you take handle your girl."

As Moody hobbled past harry, out of the room, the young wizard looked on at Daphne in shock. She'd always seemed so sure of herself, so completely indomitable; to see her in this state was almost terrifying.

He hesitated, trying to think of what he should do in this situation. Eventually, the memory of him comforting Ginny surfaced in his mind. Deciding to give it a shot, he knelt down in front of the sobbing Slytherin, and awkwardly wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

Immediately, Daphne reacted and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, pulling him closer, burying her face in his chest. He allowed her to stay like that, letting her tears soak into his shirt. Every so often, she would mutter something that sounded like, "not useless," as he slowly rocked her back and forth.

On a whim, he brought one of his hands up to stroke her honey hair. It felt soft to the touch. He realized later that it shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did. He merely assumed everything about her was as hard and abrasive as her personality; her eyes, her kisses. The thought of any part of her being so welcoming was astonishing.

It was then that he realized that the girl in his arms was a lot more than she appeared to be.

After what seemed like an eternity, Daphne finally calmed down enough to stop crying. The occasional tear still leaked from her blood-shot eyes, leaving behind slowly drying trails on her cheek.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked soothingly.

"No," Daphne replied nearly instantly.

Harry sighed, pulling away somewhat so he could look her in the eyes. "It's not healthy to bottle things up. I understand if you don't want to talk about it yet, it took me forever to confide in my friends about the way I was treated at home, but if you do eventually decide you want to vent, I'm here."

"Harry," Daphne said slowly, "You really don't hav-,"

"No, I don't have to. I want to," He said, cutting her off. "Partners, remember?"

"I'll think about it," Daphne replied as she slowly stood. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go clean up my face."

With that, Daphne left Harry alone to ponder what could have set his partner off.

0-0-0-0-0-0

"Lad managed a non-verbal stunner, but couldn't manage an enervate?" Moody asked, scratching his head.

"I guess so," Tonks replied, "Still a bit disappointed that's the only thing he's managed to pull off."

"It's been two days Nymphadora," Mad-eye grumbled, "It took you three weeks before you learned proper silent casting."

Tonks blushed in mild humiliation.

"But, perhaps we need to switch things up. Maybe my approach will work better on him," The older wizard said.

Tonks looked up in surprise. "Really?" She asked, "I thought you wanted to train the Greengrass girl yourself."

Moody shrugged. "There was a situation a few minutes ago," he replied, causing the metamorphmagus to gasp. "She got very hostile towards me. Something I said apparently set her off, probably coupled with the history between myself and her parents."

"You and her parents?" Tonks asked, "What history?"

"Back fifteen years ago, when I was still an auror, and the war was still going on, I tried to capture Cygnus Greengrass a few times," replied Moody. "She probably blames me for not succeeding; for allowing the man to stay out of Azkaban where he could abuse her and her sister."

"Wouldn't have done any good," the usually bubbly auror said. "He still would have pleaded imperiused, and gotten out anyways."

"Exactly," Moody concurred, "But for such a smart girl, she hasn't figured that out yet. Regardless, I'd like to avoid another incident like that again, which is why you'll be training her, and I'll take Potter."

"Fine," Tonks acquiesced, "Just make sure you give him a hard time from me."

Moody gave a malicious grin, made even scarier by the extensive scarring on his face. "Nymphadora, when have you ever known me to take it easy on any of my pupils?"

Tonks gulped, giving a silent prayer for Harry's safety.

0-0-0-0-0-0

_I am not judgmental, a sinner nor a saint  
'Cause either you're my best friend or you ain't  
Come gather here around me, feel my breath under your skin  
I'm deadly only when I'm getting caught_

_I count down the zero, I'm a soldier without soul  
No mercy, no mercy, no mercy on your soul_

_Kill by any means necessary  
Win by any means necessary  
Live by any means necessary  
Die by any means necessary_

_I am born to kill, judge and condemn  
I am born to win, slay and maim 'em  
I am born to live, fight for glory  
I am born to die_


End file.
